' • • * V*^ ^^ o • » , 

















^"■^*. 





• ,^°-^-^. 















"^^r^< 







4?-* 









0^ c°/.'''». ^o. 



4 o 





v^. 



•0? ^ 









AARON BURR. 

By permission from " The History of the City of 
New York," by Mrs. Martha J. Lamb. 



THE TRUE AARON BURR 



A Biographical Sketch 



BY 

CHARLES BURR TODD 

Author of -Story of the City of New York," -Story of Washington, the 

National Capital" 



New York 

A. S. BARNES & COMPANY 

1902 



THE LIBRARY «F 

e»NGRess, 

Two CoHtS RecE'v":* 

MAY. 3 1902 

COPYRt«HT ENTRY 

^LASS cty XXc Ne.| 
COPY B. 



[ 



Copyright, 1902 

BY 

CHARLES BURR TODD 

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 



Published May^ 1902 



c c c c c c 



FOREWORD TO THE READER. 

IN later life Colonel Aaron Burr took into his law office several young 
men of brilliant parts whom he educated for the bar, and some of 
whom he adopted. To these young men who had his confidence he 
was fond of talking of the men and events of his career. Some of these 
men the writer was privileged to know, and to him as a collateral descend- 
ant of Colonel Burr and the historian of his family, they repeated his remi- 
niscences and talked more freely of his plans and purposes as revealed 
by him than they would have done to a stranger, so that this little book, 
in so far as it relates to certain phases of Colonel Burr's career in contro- 
versy, may be said to have been inspired by that gentleman himself and 
to express his views in the historical controversy between himself and the 
American people— or rather between him and certain mendacious writers 
of history who, for the past fifty years, have left no depth of falsehood or 
slander unsounded in their effort to prove Aaron Burr a traitor and a 
murderer. The historic fact that after a trial lasting months, with the 
President of the United States personally directing it, and urging on his 
dogs of war, a prejudiced jury was compelled to declare the accused 
innocent of treason would have cleared most men— but it did not Aaron 
Burr ; and why not ? Because there were men, many men, interested in 
having him declared a traitor. 

Colonel Burr trusted to the twentieth century to vindicate him, and 
certain signs of the times indicate that his trust was not in vain. 

In Mr. John Codman's recent account of the Benedict Arnold Expe- 
dition against Quebec, no mention is made of Burr's gallant conduct on 
the march, in volunteering to carry dispatches to Montgomery when 
every other man in the command had refused, nor of his still more splen- 
did achievement in bearing off the body of Montgomery from the field 



'^ FORE WORD TO THE READER 

before Quebec,-both as well substantiated as the storming of Bunker 
Hill,-but he goes out of his way to narrate the false and slanderous story 
of his intrigue with an Indian girl. The above facts must have been per- 
fectly well known to Mr. Codman. Why then did he omit them ? Mani- 
festly out of deference to his own prejudices or those of his readers 
Again, m Mr. William Eleroy Curtis's "True Thomas Jefferson," the 
following statement is made : 

"Within a few years an examination of the archives of the Foreign 
Offices of London, Madrid, and Paris has disclosed unpublished corre- 
spondence with their representatives in Washington during the Jefferson 
administration which throws a great deal of light upon the Burr con- 
spiracy and leaves no doubt of his treason." 

We challenge Mr. Curtis to give his authorities. He will not because 
he cannot. Everything favorable to Burr was religiously eliminated from 
the btate Papers bearing on that subject now in Washington, but his 
enemies forgot the old Spanish archives at New Orleans and Mexico 
and among them a young American investigator has found ample proof 
that Colonel Burr intended only the capture of Mexico and its ultimate 
annexation to the United States. Mr. McCaleb's book will shortly be 
published, and will no doubt prove a veritable thunderbolt in the ranks of 
the tones. 

In conclusion, I will say that in writing this book I had not seen Mr ' 
Charles Felton Pidgin's excellent historical novel -Blennerhasset," and it 
is very gratifying to find him taking substantially the same view of Colonel 
Burr s career as that expressed in these pages. 

New York, ' ^' ^' ^' 

December i, 1901. 



COLONEL AARON BURR. 

IN the army of General Washington which throughout the hot summer 
of 1776 was engaged in the mad attempt to fortify the city of New 
York against an overpowering British force were two young officers 
of brilliant genius, unbounded ambition, and winning personality, before 
whom the most successful careers seemed opening, but whom fate had 
decreed should oppose each other in life and in the end destroy one the 
other — Captain Aaron Burr and Captain Alexander Hamilton. Of the 
two Burr was far superior in birth, position, and prestige. His father 
was the Rev. Aaron Burr, D.D., the eminent divine whom Princetonians 
will always revere as the true founder of their University. His maternal 
grandfather was the Rev. Jonathan Edwards, the most illustrious divine 
America had ever produced. His Burr forbears had been the chiefest 
pillars of the colonial fabric of Connecticut. A collateral ancestor, 
Colonel Andrew Burr, had led the colony forces to the capture of Louis- 
burg in 1745. Another, Peter Burr, was Chief Judge of the Superior 
Court of Connecticut, Major in her train bands, and one of the earliest 
graduates of Harvard College. A third, Samuel Burr, graduated at Har- 
vard in 1697, and became head-master of the famous grammar school at 
Charlestown, Mass. A fourth, Jehu Burr, may be considered the author 
of the present excellent school system of Connecticut. 

Burr's grandfather, the Rev. Jonathan Edwards, was the son of Rev. 
Thomas Edwards, who was the son of Richard Edwards, who in 1667 
married Elisabeth, daughter of that William Tuthill who in 1635 removed 
from Old England to New England and became one of the founders of 
the city of New Haven, Conn. This William Tuthill was a great-great- 
grandson of Joan Grafton, daughter of Richard Grafton, who descended 
in direct line from Alfred the Great. Considering the blood in his veins 



2 THE TRUE AARON BURR, 

one might assert with confidence that it was impossible for Aaron Burr 
to have been a traitor. 

Hamilton, on the other hand, was a waif, an estray, an alien. His 
birthplace, St. Nevis, was an obscure island, a solitary rock far out in 
the Atlantic, of which not one American in ten thousand had ever heard. 
His reputed father, a Scotch merchant, early emigrated to the island and 
had conducted his affairs there so illy that the sheriff sold him out, and 
the lad, Alexander, became dependent on the charity of relatives, by 
whom he had been sent to America and educated at Kings, now Colum- 
bia, College in New York. 

Captain Burr was born in the parsonage of the First Church, Newark, 
N. J. (of which his father was then pastor), on February 6, 1756. Before 
he was two years old he had lost father, mother, grandparents, and 
orphaned and desolate went to live with his uncle, Timothy Edwards, 
eldest son of President Edwards. Edwards was a strict martinet, steeped 
in the cold, rigid puritan theology of the day, who lived in the shadow 
of Sinai rather than in the sweetness and light, the love and compassion 
of the Mount of Beatitudes, and was wholly unfit for the rearing of a 
warm-hearted, impulsive, high-spirited lad like Aaron Burr. To his cold- 
ness, inappreciation, and unwise government may be attributed much 
that was faulty in the character and subsequent career of his distinguished 
nephew. 

The boy had been left an ample patrimony and his uncle made free 
use of it in his education ; he provided for him an excellent tutor. Tap- 
pan Reeve, who some years later became his brother-in-law, and later 
still was widely known as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Connec- 
ticut, and founder of the Litchfield Law School. So precocious was the 
lad, that at eleven he was ready for college, and applied to the faculty 
of Princeton for admission, but was refused solely, as he himself said, 
" on account of his years and inches." He contrived, however, to 
triumph over the faculty by entering the sophomore class two years later, 
in 1769, and graduated with distinction in September, 1772. 

The year that followed was spent partly at Princeton, among his 
books, and partly at Elizabethtown in pursuit of those manly sports 



THE TRUE AARON BURR. 3 

which young men of fortune sometimes affect. During this year, too, 
the subject of a profession was much in his thoughts. His friends and 
the Presbyterian world generally expected him to choose the profession 
which his father and grandfather had so adorned. Conscience, and the 
silent influence of the dead impelled him in the same direction. On the 
other hand, he had no doubt imbibed much of the speculative French 
philosophy then rife, and which, while it questioned the truth of revefa- 
tion, pointed to the attainment of fame, and the indulgence of passion as 
the chief means of obtaining happiness. In this state of indecision, he 
became, in the fall of 1774, an inmate of Dr. Bellamy's famous school at 
Bethlehem, Connecticut. This gentleman was the successor in theology 
of President Edwards, and his reputation for learning and piety attracted 
to his home so many candidates for the ministry, that it assumed quite 
the character of a theological seminary. 

Here Burr fought the great battle of Armageddon. 

We cannot give the details of the conflict, nor say how largely the re- 
suit was due to the absurd and repelling system of theology then in 
vogue, but we know that the result of his studies was a conviction, to use 
his own words, " that the road to heaven was open to all alike." He 
became an agnostic. He did not know. Thereafter on all religious 
questions he simply suspended judgment. 

In the fall of 1774, we find him a law student with Tappan Reeve, 
now the proud husband of pretty Sallie Burr, and principal of a law 
school at Litchfield, Conn., which had already become famous. For a 
few months only Burr pored over his musty law-books, then the guns of 
Lexington summoned him to arms with thousands of other gallant spirits, 
and buckling on his sword he set off without delay to join the army at 
Boston. 

It was in July, 1775, that Burr and his friend Ogden— afterward 
Colonel— joined the Continental army, and it was in August of the same 
year that after five weeks of inaction, he rose from a sick bed to volun- 
teer in Colonel Benedict Arnold's expedition then preparing for its famous 
march through the wilderness of Maine to strike Quebec and Canada. 
He armed and equipped a company at his own expense, and taking 



4 THE TRUE AARON BURR. 

command, with the rank of Captain, marched them to Newburyport where 
the little army was to rendezvous. 

On Tuesday, the 19th of September, at ten in the morning, the ex- 
pedition, 1,100 strong, embarked and stood away for the mouth of the 
Kennebec, which they reached on the 23d. From that point they were 
to follow the Kennebec to Dead River, up that stream to its source near 
Bald Mountain, then over a portage of a few miles to Lake Megantic, 
the source of the Chaudiere, which would lead to the St. Lawrence and 
Quebec. This journey was to be performed through an unbroken wilder- 
ness 600 miles in extent. On the 4th of October the army took leave of. 
houses and settlements, and plunged into this wilderness; twenty-seven 
days after, on the 31st of October, they reached the settlements on the 
Chaudiere River. These were days of the severest privation; thirty 
times or more the boats were unloaded and borne across portages, miles 
in length, or hauled by main strength around rapids and falls. Once a 
sudden flood destroyed half the boats and provisions, and starvation 
threatened the troops. For days they lived upon dogs and reptiles, they 
even ate the leather of their shoes and cartridge-boxes, and everything 
that could afford nourishment. Many sickened, others deserted, and 
when at last they approached the settlements it was found that sickness, 
death, and desertion had reduced their numbers to barely 600 effective 
men. 

Through it all our young soldier displayed the courage and endurance 
of a veteran. He animated the men with his sprightliness and wit, or he 
led hunting parties in quest of game; or in the van of his division steered 
the foremost boat in its descent of the turbulent river. In all positions 
he proved himself a worthy member of the gallant six hundred who 
marched with Arnold through the wilderness, and came out strong in 
life and limb before Quebec. As the force approached Ihe latter place, 
a messenger was needed to communicate with Montgomery, then at Mon- 
treal, one hundred and twenty miles distant. No one volunteered for 
this perilous enterprise, until at last " little Burr " stepped out. Arnold, 
running his eye over the stripling, demurred to sending such a youth, 
but Burr persisted, and at length the commission was given him. 



THE TRUE AARON BURR. 5 

Fertile of expedient, he had already devised a plan for executing his 
mission. Knowing that the religious chiefs of the country were opposed 
to British rule, he donned the garb of a young priest, and sought an in- 
terview with the chief of a religious house near by, and to him, after a 
few preliminaries, frankly unfolded his plan; this, the worthy prelate, 
after his astonishment had passed, heartily seconded, and Burr was 
passed quickly and safely from one religious house to another, in the 
disguise of a priest, until he reached Montgomery, who was so delighted 
with his address and gallantry that he made him his aide-de-ca7np on the 
spot, with the rank of captain. 

Twenty-four hours after, Montgomery, with his three hundred avail- 
able men, was on the march to join Arnold at Quebec. They arrived 
there December i, 1775. The succeeding thirty days, history has made 
immortal. There was, first, the council of war which decided on the 
assault, and which gave to Burr the command of a forlorn hope of forty 
men, whom he was to select and drill in the use of scaling ladders, ropes, 
grapnels, and all the paraphernalia of the assault. After the council came 
the long waiting for the midnight storm, which burst upon them at last 
on the 31st of December. At five in the morning the order to assault 
was given, the air then being so thick with snow that everything was 
hidden : nine hundred men answered to the roll call. These were divided 
into four parties, two for the attack and two to distract the enemy's atten- 
tion by feints at various points. 

Arnold led one of the attacking parties and Montgomery the other. 
Side by side with his general that morning marched Captain Burr; beside 
them were two other aids, a sergeant, and the French guide, these six 
constituting the group in advance. The column swept swiftly and silently 
along the St. Lawrence toward the defences under Cape Diamond, and 
in a fev/ moments struck the first of these — a line of pickets firmly fastened 
in the ground. These were wrenched away in an instant, and the 
column rushed on to a second line. Here it was discovered by the Brit- 
ish guard, who fired an ineffectual volley and fled in dismay to a block- 
house, a few yards in the rear. This latter was quite a fortress, built of 
ponderous logs, loop-holed above for musketry, and pierced below for 



6 THE TRUE AARON BURR. 

two twelve-pounders, which, charged with grape and canister, com- 
manded the gorge up which the party was now advancing. The garrison, 
wild with fear, fled precipitately without firing a shot. Thus the gate to 
the city was thrown wide open, but the besiegers failed to appear in the 
breach ; they were some yards below, struggling with the huge blocks of 
ice which a winter flood in the St. Lawrence had left m their path. 

At this critical juncture one of the fugitives ventured back to the 
blockhouse; peeping through one of the port-holes, he saw the attacking 
column a few yards off, and turned to fly again, but as he did so, touched 
a itiatch to 07ie of those loaded cannon. That simple act saved Quebec. 
Montgomery, the two aids, the sergeant, every man that marched in front 
of the column, except Burr and the guide, were stricken down by the 
discharge, and in a moment the fortunes of the day were changed, and 
the victory which seemed in the grasp of the provincials was turned into 
defeat. " At this critical moment Burr was as cool, as determined, as 
eager to go forward as at the most exultant moment of the advance." 

"When dismay and consternation universally prevailed," testified 
Captain Piatt, an eye-witness of the scene, *' Burr animated the troops 
and made many efforts to lead them on, and stimulated them to enter the 
lower town." But the enemy reappeared in force at the blockhouse, and 
the commanding officer ordered a retreat, by this act giving Captain Burr 
an opportunity to perform an action that redeems humanity and proved 
him the impulsive, generous being that his friends knew him to have been. 
As the deed itself has been called in question, I give an account of it in 
the words of the Rev. Samuel Spring, chaplain in Arnold's expedition, 
and who was present at the assault. After describing the attack, he 
says: " It was a heavy snow-storm, Montgomery had fallen, the British 
troops were advancing towards the dead body, and Utile Burr was hasten- 
ing fro?n the fire of the enemy, up to his knees in snow, with Montgomery' s 
body on his shoulders. Some forty yards he staggered on under his 
burden, and was then obliged to drop it to avoid capture by the enemy." 

But when night fell Burr stole back and bore away the body of his 
hero. " That night," continues Spring, " (it was moonlight and the snow 
lay thick upon the ground), the Captain stole from camp, and passing 



THE TRUE AARON BURR, J 

our pickets, he approached the battlefield and commenced crawling and 
running among the dead, whenever the moon was partially obscured by 
clouds, all the time keeping up a strict search, till he found the body of 
Montgomery, which he placed upon his back, and the beardless boy 
staggering under his heavy load succeeded at last in bringing the body 
of his General to our camp. He appeared to me like some guardian 
angel of the dead and I can never forget him." 

Captain Burr remained with Arnold's command until May and then 
resigned and set out for New York via Albany. He arrived safely, and, 
the fame of his exploits having preceded him, he was offered by Washing- 
ton a place on his staff, where he was serving on being introduced to the 
reader. 

Captain Burr had already won his spurs. As for Hamilton's they were 
as yet in the future. 

But Burr did not long remain on Washington's staff. He was essen- 
tially a man of action, and the purely clerical duties that now fell to his 
lot wearied him. This, however, was not all. Washington, long wor- 
shipped as a demigod, we now know to have been a man of like passions 
with ourselves, who required from his subordinates an adulation, a 
sycophancy that Burr's proud spirit would not submit to. He resigned. 
Hamilton, who could bear a great deal when his advancement was at 
stake, succeeded Burr and after enduring it for several months also re- 
signed and for the same reason. The influence of his cousin, Thaddeus 
Burr of Fairfield, exerted through the latter's intimate friend. Governor 
Hancock, gained Burr the appointment of aid to General Putnam, who 
was then busily engaged in fortifying the city, and in the military family 
of that rough and ready old Indian fighter he was contented and happy. 

But Washington never forgave nor forgot the defection. Here was 
the first cause of that invincible distrust of Burr which that great man 
bore through life, although it was secretly and artfully fomented by 
Hamilton. 

It was here, while the army lay in New York, that Burr and Hamilton 
first met, and here began that unfriendliness which culminated twenty- 
eight years later in the action on the fatal shelf at Weehawken. Rivalry 



8 THE TRUE AARON BURR. 

for the favor of fair women in which Burr was always victorious first in- 
spired in Hamilton's breast that settled hatred which was later intensified 
by rivalry at the bar and in public life. This fact, that it was personal 
bias and not solicitude for the public weal that led Hamilton constantly 
to slander, oppose, and thwart Burr in their subsequent career, cannot 
be too strongly insisted upon. It furnishes the key to the whole situa- 
tion: it puts an entirely different construction on the acts of both. 

In August occurred the disastrous battle of Long Island, with the re- 
sult that might have been foreseen, and the famous retreat of Washing- 
ton's army to Manhattan Island. 

In this retreat Captain Burr was again the hero of an action which 
won him almost universal applause. He had been scouting in the lower 
part of the island, and was flying in full gallop before the enemy, when 
he came upon an American brigade, sheltered in a mud fort, which stood 
on or about the present line of Grand Street. " What are you doing 
here ? '•' Burr demanded. General Knox, the commander, explained 
that he had been left behind by mistake, and, deeming himself sur- 
rounded, he had determined to hold the fort. Burr ridiculed the idea, 
and, addressing the men, told them if they remained there they would 
surely be in the British prison ships before morning. He then led them 
by blind and circuitous paths to the Hudson, and safely rejoined the 
main army, with the loss of but a few stragglers. These men ever after 
regarded him as their deliverer from the British prison ships, and the 
whole army rang with his praises, yet his name was not even men- 
tioned in the dispatches of the commander-in-chief. In 1777, Captain 
Burr was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. His superior 
officer, Colonel Malcolm, was a New York merchant of no military abil- 
ity, and the actual command of the regiment devolved upon Burr. This 
responsibility he cheerfully assumed, and in a few months brought his 
men — all raw levies — into the most perfect state of discipline. 

Through the fall of this year his regiment was detailed for scouting 
duty in New Jersey, then the debatable ground between the two armies. 
Here he first met Mrs. Prevost, then residing at Paramus, who after- 
ward became his wife. 



THE TRUE AARON BURR. 9 

In November he joined the main army for the winter cantonment at 
Valley Forge, and through the winter was in command of a very import- 
ant post called " the Gulf," some ten miles distant from the main body, 
and which would be the point first attacked should the enemy make a 
descent on the camp. He owed this appointment, it is said, to General 
McDougall, who had been his superior officer at the battle of Long 
Island. He next saw active service at the famous battle of Monmouth, 
June 28 and 30, 1778. Here he commanded a brigade in Lord Sterling's 
division, and fully sustained that reputation for address and gallantry 
which he had before earned. After the battle, almost worn out with 
fatigue and exposure, he was sent to New York with orders to watch the 
enemy's movements in that quarter and report, which task he .performed 
with the utmost spirit and success. Returned from this duty, he was 
ordered to march at once with his regiment to West Point; the regiment, 
however, went forward without him, he being detailed, gn the eve of de- 
parture, for the delicate service of conducting several influential Tories 
within the British lines. A few weeks later he reported at West Point, 
but finding himself completely broken in health, he wrote to Washington 
asking leave of absence without pay, until the next campaign, and urging 
as a reason his utter unfitness for military duty. Washington granted him 
leave of absence, but continued his pay. This, however. Burr utterly 
refused toaccept, and the matter was compromised by his being placed 
in command of West Point, where he remained until his health was in a 
measure regained. He was now twenty-three years of age. 

About the ist of January, 1779, Colonel Burr received his last and 
most important command, being placed in charge of the Westchester 
"lines," extending from the Hudson to the Sound, a distance of fourteen 
miles, traversing a section the most lawless and turbulent in the country, 
and which former commanders had utterly failed to control ; here Whigs 
plundered Tories, and Tories harried Whigs with the utmost impartiality, 
and both parties combined to plunder the peaceful Quakers, who formed 
by far the largest portion of the population. To check these marauders. 
Burr proclaimed martial law, and proceeded to punish all offenders with 
the utmost rigor. His energy was untiring, and his vigilance argus-eyed. 



10 THE TRUE AARON BURR. 

To protect his posts, he prescribed for himself and his subordinates a 
course of the extremest vigilance, and visited with the severest penalties 
any departure from it. Next he prepared a list of the inhabitants of his 
district, and divided them into their several classes, such as Whigs, Tories, 
half-Whigs, spies, and others ; and further prepared an accurate map of 
the country, showing the roads, creeks, swamps, woods, and other avenues 
of escape for parties flying from pursuit. To these safeguards he added' 
a perfect system of scouts and espionage, and so managed all that order 
and quiet was restored to the whole region covered by his force. 

If, during this winter he showed himself gallant in war, he also proved 
himself no laggard in love, for twice during the period he contrived to 
visit Mrs. Prevost, at Paramus, thirty miles distant, on both occasions at 
night, and with such secrecy that his absence from camp was not sus- 
pected. But the labors of this command proved to be too exhaustive a 
drain on a once splendid, but now enfeebled constitution ; and on the loth 
of March, 1779, he was forced to send in his commission to General 
Washington, stating the circumstances of his case, and asking a discharge. 
In reply, Washington wrote a letter accepting his resignation, and regret- 
ting " not only the loss of a good officer, but the causes which made it 
necessary." Thus, after four years of active military life. Colonel Burr 
became again a private citizen. Eighteen months were spent in recruit- 
ing his shattered health. Then he resumed the legal studies which four 
years before he had laid down at the call of his country. His first tutor 
was Judge Patterson, of New Jersey ; but not satisfied with his progress 
under him he removed, in the spring of 1781, to Haverstraw, N. Y., and 
took up his abode with Mr. Thomas Smith, a lawyer of note, formerly of 
New York, but now thrown out of business by the British occupation of 
that city. Here Burr pursued his studies with the utmost dispatch, living 
abstemiously, and poring over his books twenty hours out of the twenty- 
four. There were several reasons for this intense application. His 
splendid patrimony was all gone, spent largely with that inconsiderate 
generosity which was his bane, to feed, clothe, and arm the destitute 
soldiers of his command ; and his purse needed replenishing. Again, the 
success of the American cause, then well assured, would give to the Whig 



THE TRUE AARON BURR. I II 

lawyers all the business and emoluments of the profession. Lastly, he 
contemplated marriage, and only a lucrative practice stood in the way of 
home comforts and domestic happiness. After reading law twelve months 
this man of wonderful gifts thought himself competent to practice, and 
applied for admission to the bar ; but to his dismay he was confronted 
with a rule of the court which required candidates to spend at least three 
years in the study of the law. He could boast of but one ; nor could he 
find a lawyer disinterested enough to move a suspension of the rule. He 
therefore appeared in court and himself offered and argued the motion, 
reminding the court that but for his services in the field he would long 
before have completed his studies, and that in his case at least there were 
weighty reasons for the suspension of the rule. The judge, after hearing 
his plea, decided that the rule might in his case be dispensed with, pro- 
vided he could show that he possessed the requisite qualifications ; and a 
most rigorous examination having proved his fitness, he was licensed an 
attorney on the 19th of January, 1782. 

The young lawyer at once opened an office in Albany, and began the 
practice of the law, and was so successful that in three months he thought 
it prudent to marry. The wedding accordingly took place July 2, 1782, 
in the Dutch Reformed Church, at Paramus, the Rev. David Bogart, 
pastor of the church, performing the ceremony. This marriage certainly 
gives no color to the popular belief that Colonel Burr was a cold, selfish, 
unprincipled schemer, with an eye always open to the main chance. He 
was young, handsome, well born, a rising man in his profession, and might 
no doubt have formed an alliance with any one of the wealthy and power- 
ful families that lent lustre to the annals of their State. This would have 
been the course of a politician. But Burr, disdaining these advantages 
married the widow of a British officer, the most unpopular thing in the 
then state of public feeling that a man could do,* a lady without wealth, 

* She was however American born. By none of Burr's biographers nor in any of the 
numerous magazine accounts is the maiden name and parentage of this estimable lady 
given. She was Theodosia Bartow, only child of Theodosius Bartow, a lawyer of Shrews- 
bury, N. J., and of Ann (Stillwell) Bartow his wife. She was married to Colonel Mark 
Prevost July 28, 1763, in Trinity Church, New York, according to the marriage register 



12 THE TRUE AARON BURR, 

position, or beauty, and at least ten years his senior, simply because he 
loved her ; and he loved her, it is well to note, because she had the truest 
heart, the ripest intellect, and the most winning and graceful manners of 
any woman he had ever met. It was a favorite remark of his, in later years, 
that if he was more easy and graceful in manner than other men, it was 
from the unconscious influence of her spirit and graces upon him. 

I think it should be mentioned here — because the opposite has been 
stated — that the marriage was conducive of great happiness to both, and 
that Colonel Burr was to the end the most faithful and devoted of hus- 
bands. The young couple at once began housekeeping in a pleasant 
mansion in the city of Albany, and there they continued to reside (re- 
ceiving in the first year of their marriage a lovely daughter, Theodosia, 
to their home), until, in the fall of 1784 Burr's increasing law business in 
New York necessitated his removal to that city. In New York he took 
a front rank among the leaders of the bar, and his reputation overwhelmed 
him with business ; by many he was regarded as superior even to Hamilton. 

He was the most successful lawyer that ever plead, and it is said never 
lost a case in which he was alone engaged. Yet the general verdict is that 
he was not a great lawyer. Perhaps not. He certainly never affected 
greatness. A soldier by nature and profession, he regarded the end 
from the beginning and carried his soldierly tactics into the courts ; he 
always used the fueans best calculated to gain his ends. If learning and 
eloquence were necessary, he could be both learned and eloquent. If 
appeal, argument, sarcasm, invective promised to be more effective, he 
used them, or he would win by showing the weak points of his adversary's 
case rather than the strong points of his own. He was careful to go into 
action thoroughly furnished ; his weapons were always at command, and 
his armor without flaw ; like most lawyers, he at times skirmished pretty 
close to the citadel of truth, but it cannot be proved that he ever resorted 
to dishonorable means to gain an end, while it must be said in his praise, 
that he was keenly alive to the interests of his clients, and was never 
known to betray a professional trust. His legal practice covered a period 

of that church. Colonel Prevost was brother of the General Prevost of Savannah, Ga., 
fame, and died in the West Indies in 1779. 



THE TRUE AARON BURR, 1 3 

of nearly sixty years — one of the longest on record, and many of his cases 
and opinions, notably the Medcef Eden case, and the opinion on the con- 
tested election in New York, in 1792, attracted national attention. One 
thing which I have observed in regard to Colonel Burr is, that as a 
lawyer he is held by the New York bar in the greatest respect, and his in- 
fluence for good, both in shaping laws and promoting justice, is freely 
admitted. 

His first appearance in politics was in 1784, when he was elected to a 
seat in the New York Assembly. He filled the same position in 1785. 
In 1789, Governor Clinton appointed him Attorney-General of New York. 
In March, 1790, the Legislature named him one of the three commission- 
ers, appointed to decide and classify the claims of individuals who had 
rendered services, or sustained losses in the Revolutionary War. The 
next year he was placed on a commission with the Governor, Secretary, 
Treasurer, and Auditor, to sell the waste and unclaimed lands of the 
State, the proceeds to be applied to liquidating its war debt and claims. 
The ability with which he performed the duties of these positions, was the 
main cause of his subsequent marvellous political advancement. In Jan- 
lyiry, 179 1, seven years after his entrance upon public life, he was elected 
to represent the State of New York in the National Senate, and on the 
24th of October — the first day of the session — he took his seat as a mem- 
ber of that body. The day after, he received a very flattering recogni- 
tion, being appointed chairman of the committee to draft the Senate's 
reply to the President's annual address. 

Of Colonel Burr's course in the Senate, we have only the most meagre 
details. That body, patterned after the English House of Lords, then 
sat with closed doors, and little more than the record of votes was given 
to the public. We know, however, that he served the full term of six 
years, that he acted generally with the liberal party, that he was the ac- 
knowledged leader and champion of that side of the House, that he advo- 
cated, among other important measures, an open session of the Senate, 
lower rates of postage, substantial aid to the French people in their 
struggle for liberty, and the gradual abolition of slavery. He also gained 
a g:eat reputation as an orator, although no utterance of his now exists. 



14 THE TRUE AARON BURR. 

A great speech delivered by Colonel Burr against the ratification of Jay's 
treaty with Great Britain, in 1795, is mentioned by the newspapers of that 
day, but no report of it is given. 

In 1791, Governor Clinton nominated him to the bench of the Supreme 
Court of his State, but he declined the honor, preferring his seat in the 
Senate. As the election, in April, 1792, of a Governor for the State of 
New York drew near. Colonel Burr was frequently mentioned as a can- 
didate but Hamilton's adverse influence prevented his nomination. In 
November, 1792, the young nation was to elect for the second time a 
President and Vice-President. Washington, it was well known, would fill 
the first office ; as to the incumbent of the second, some uncertainty ex- 
isted. John Adams was the candidate of the Federal party ; in the Hb- 
eral, the choice lay between George Clinton and Aaron Burr, but Burr's 
claims were in the end set aside, and Clinton was nominated. 

In the succeeding presidential election, however, our hero came more 
prominently before the country, as a candidate for this high office. In 
that canvass, John Adams received 71 votes, Thomas Jefferson 68, Thomas 
Pinckney 59, and Aaron Burr 30. About this time, and while he was in 
the Senate, he sustained an irreparable loss in the death of his wife, from 
cancer, after a long and painful illness. How much Colonel Burr's 
subsequent misfortunes were due to the loss of this estimable lady, can- 
not be determined, but it is certain that, had she lived, his career would 
have had a very different ending. She died in the spring of 1794. On 
the 4th of March, 1797, Colonel Burr's term in the Senate expired, and he 
was succeeded by Gen. Philip Schuyler, the Federal party being then in 
the ascendant in New York. 

Burr returned to his law business in the metropolis, without however 
losing his hold on national politics. On the contrary, he had formed the 
design of destroying at a blow Federal supremacy in the United States. 
For two years he worked in silence, then in April, 1800, the time came 
for him to show his hand. The fourth presidential election was but six 
months distant, and the rival parties were already in the field. They 
were two — the Federal, a party of old renown, strong in the prestige of 
victory, conservative, arrogant, English in everything but in name, md 



THE TRUE AARON BURR, 1 5 

clinging tenaciously to class privileges and class domination. Its great 
rival, the Republican party, was liberal and progressive in the extreme. 
It was the popular party, par excellence^ and as much French as the other 
was English. It advocated an open Senate, a free press, free speech, free 
schools, and free religion. Its leading principle was that so pithily ex- 
pressed by Mr. Seward, " the emancipation of the masses from the domi- 
nation of classes." 

Of this party Thomas Jefferson was the nominal leader, the historical 
figure-head, but its real imperator was Aaron Burr, the man who, in the 
conflict which we are now to consider, taught it how to win. In those 
days the Legislature of each State cast the vote of its State for President. 
It early became apparent that New York would decide the presidential 
contest. It was also apparent, that if the Republicans could secure the 
New York Legislature (to be chosen in April, 1800) the national issue 
was already decided, and to attain this object Burr had planned and toiled 
during the two previous years, and now redoubled his exertions. 

It was a mistake of Hamilton's that made his great rival's triumph 
possible. That chieftain, strong in Federal supremacy, gathered his 
friends together a few weeks before the election, and made out a list of 
his candidates from the city for assemblymen. They were all his personal 
friends, and men of but little weight in the community. Burr, when the 
slate was brought to him, perceived at once his adversary's great mistake, 
and proceeded to profit by it. He immediately sat down and prepared 
his list of candidates. At its head he placed George Clinton, so long 
Governor of the State. Then came General Gates, Brockholst Living- 
ston, and other names of national reputation. The next and more difficult 
step was to persuade these gentlemen to allow their names to be used, but 
by bringing his matchless powers of persuasion to bear, he succeeded in 
this also. Then a public meeting was held and the ticket ratified with 
immense enthusiasm. 

Simultaneously Burr began organizing his cohorts for the campaign. 
The strictest discipline was ordered and enforced. ^* Every member was 
obliged to submit to the will of the majority," and ^'that majority was 
made to move at the beck of committees, which concentrated the power 



l6 THE TRUE AARON BURR. 

in the hands of a few individuals." Ward and general meetings were held 
almost daily. Complete lists of all voters were made out with the politi- 
cal history and affiliations of each ; pamphlets and political speeches were 
disseminated, and no means left untried that might lead to success. The 
polls opened April 20th, and closed May 2d, at sunset, and before the city 
had sunk to rest it was known that the Republican cause had won in the 
city by a majority of 490 votes. This decided the election throughout 
the State. Hamilton seems to have been nearly frantic over his defeat, 
or he never would have adopted the mean expedient which he did, to 
wrest from his opponents the fruits of their hard-won victory. He at once 
called a caucus of his party, and with its concurrence, wrote to Governor 
Jay, urging him to call an extra session of the old Legislature, which was 
still in existence, that it might take the power of choosing presidential 
electors from the Legislature and give it to the people, thus leaving the 
whole case to be decided again by ballot. This letter was sent, and the 
next day a complete expose of the whole plan, with an account of the cau- 
cus, and the contents of the letter were published in the Republican jour- 
nals, to the no small astonishment of the '* caucus," which had concocted 
it. Governor Jay, however, refused to sanction any such proceedings, 
and the scheme proved futile. 

A few days after the New York election, a Republican caucus at 
Philadelphia nominated Thomas Jefferson for President, and Aaron Burr 
for Vice-President of the United States. The election which followed in 
November resulted in the well-known tie,* Jefferson having 73 votes, 
Burr 73, Adams 65, Pinckney 64, and made a choice by the House of 
Representatives necessary. Then ensued a contest such as had never 
been known before in the comparatively peaceful history of parties. 

The politicians were painfully active, and the country fairly ablaze 
with excitement. The main interest centred of course in the House of 
Representatives at Washington which was to decide, and in the rival 
chiefs, who remained at their posts, Jefferson at Washington, where he 
was Vice-President and President of the Senate, and Burr at Albany, 
quietly performing his duties as Assemblyman. 

* At that time the candidate who received the greatest number of votes vi^as declared 
President. 



THE TRUE AARON BURR, 1 7 

" Had Aaron Burr not aroused prejudice by marrying a British wife, 
he would have been elected President by a large majority," was the 
remark of a prominent State official, to the writer. Perhaps so ; smaller 
things have ere this changed the popular vote, and the gentleman spoke 
with authority, his father having been the fellow aide-de-camp and intimate 
friend of Col. Burr. But whether this be true or not, it is certain that at 
any time between the declaration of the vote and the House's decision 
thereon, the merest whisper on his part, the lifting of a finger even, would 
have placed him in the seat of Washington and of Adams. The Federal 
party was almost a unit in his support. Alike from his antecedents and 
his political record, they argued that his ascendency would be less detri- 
mental to Federalism and the public good than that of Jefferson. In a 
file of the Connecticut Courant for 1801, published at Hartford, and the 
organ of the Federal party in New England, I find a long article on this 
" crisis," which forcibly and even vehemently urges Burr's claims. " Col. 
Burr," remarks the writer, " is a man of the first talents, and the most 
virtuous intentions." " A man who resolves while others deliberate, and 
who executes while others resolve." In the same article the writer 
speaks of Jefferson in terms much less complimentary. But Connecti- 
cut always was partial to Burr ; she had not forgotten the services of 
his fathers. Cabot of Massachusetts, Carroll of Carrollton, Secre- 
tary Wolcott of Connecticut, and many others openly expressed their 
preference. 

He had a strong following too in his own party. Governor Clinton 
favored him. His friends in New York, Swartwout, Van Ness, and 
others repeatedly begged permission to work for his interests. But Burr, 
in the first moments of the contest, seems to have decided to act accord- 
ing to the dictates of honor and probity. He knew that Jefferson was 
the choice of the people, and on December i6th, the day after the tie was 
declared, he wrote to a friend, disclaiming all competition. " As to my 
friends," said he, " they would dishonor my views, and insult my feelings 
by a suspicion that I would submit to be instrumental in counteracting the 
wishes and expectations of the United States." That he maintained this 
position all through the contest is shown by the letters of his contemporaries, 



l8 THE TRUE AARON BURR, 

many of them his personal and political enemies. Thus, February 12th 
Judge Cooper, of New York, father of the novelist, wrote from Washing- 
ton (where the day before the House had convened), " We have postponed 
voting for the President until to-morrow. All stand firm, Jefferson 8, 
Burr 6, divided 2. Had Burr done anything for hii7iself he would long ere 
this have been President.'' 

Also Bayard of Delaware, who gave the casting vote for Jefferson, 
wrote to Hamilton soon after the event, giving the reasons for his action, 
and after stating certain considerations which would have induced him to 
vote for Burr, he proceeds, " but I was enabled soon to perceive that he 
(Burr) was determined not to shackle himself with Federal principles," 
and further on in the same letter he says, " The means existed of electing 
Burr, but this required his cooperation : by deceiving one man (a great 
blockhead) and tempting two (not incorrupt) he might have secured the 
majority of the States." Other testimony might be advanced to disprove 
the charge often made, that during this contest Colonel Burr intrigued for 
the Presidency. The result disproves it, for had he intrigued at all he 
might easily have won ; as it was, the House, after seven days of balloting 
and debate, by a majority of one State, declared Thomas Jefferson Presi- 
dent. Aaron Burr receiving the next highest ntimber of votes became of 
course Vice-President. 

For the next four years we behold our hero at the summit of his 
power. As Vice-President, he was presiding officer of the Senate, and 
never before, it is said, were the duties of that position performed with 
such grace, dignity, and impartiality ; indeed this impartiality, in a strictly 
partisan contest, in the Senate, laid him open to the censure of his party, 
and contributed not a little to his ultimate political downfall. This con- 
test occurred during the session of 1801, over the repeal of a Judiciary 
bill, which had been rushed through at the close of the last Congress, and 
by which the Federal judges had been increased by twenty-three. These 
life judgeships Mr. Adams, in the last hours of his official life, had, with 
most indecent haste, filled, and by this action so exasperated the Repub- 
licans, that they determined to abolish them ; hence this bill. At one 
stage of the debate upon it, the Senate was tied, and it became the duty 



THE TRUE AARON BURR. I9 

of the president to give the casting vote. His decision was against the 
Republicans, and elicited no little hostile criticism from the party organs. 
At a later period he gained the ill-will of the Federalists from the same 
cause. Equally conscientious and honorable was his course in the im- 
peachment trial of the Federal Judge Chase, charged with grossly 
abusing the authority of the bench in certain political trials, and which 
occurred toward the close of the session of 1805. Commenting upon his 
course in this trial, Mr. Parton says, " The dignity, the grace, the fairness, 
the prompt, intelligent decision with which the Vice-President presided 
over the august court, extorted praise even from his enemies." "He 
conducted the trial with the dignity and impartiality of an angel, but with 
the rigor of a devil," said an eye-witness. We shall find further evidence 
as we proceed, as to the scrupulous impartiality with which he performed 
the duties of his office. 

As Vice-President, Colonel Burr, his friends, and the country, expected 
that he would succeed Jefferson in the Presidency. In this manner 
Adams had succeeded Washington, and Jefferson, Adams. That he did 
not was due to the politicians, and not to his own acts, nor because the 
people had lost confidence in him. The election of 1800 had shown his 
commanding position in national politics, and served to combine against 
him three great factions of the Republican party, — the Virginian faction 
led by Thomas Jefferson, and the Clinton and Livingston families of 
New York. These united their forces to crush him as an interloper, and 
at the Republican Convention in 1804 he was quietly shelved ; his name 
not even being mentioned in connection with public affairs. Burr attrib- 
uted this defeat to the politicians, and resolved to appeal to the people. 
Accordingly in the New York election of that year, he was announced 
as an independent candidate for Governor. The Republican party nomi- 
nated Judge Lewis ; the Federal party made no nominations. Hamilton 
threw the weight of his great influence in favor of the Republican candi- 
date ; Jefferson did the same with the federal patronage, but despite 
these fearful odds, Burr polled a vote of 28,000 against his adversary's 
35,000 ; but he was beaten. This was his last political battle ; one more 
appearance and he quitted the political field forever. 



20 THE TRUE AARON BURR. 

This event was his taking formal leave of the Senate as Vice-President 
which occurred March 2, 1805. It has been described as being one of 
the most interesting and affecting ever witnessed. The Senate had not 
then opened its doors to the public, and our only account of the scene is 
that derived from a report in the Washington Federalist^ " obtained from 
the relation of several Senators as well Federal as Republican." The 
report opens with a summary of the speech, which was, it says, '' the most 
sublime, dignified, and impressive ever uttered." Its concluding senti- 
ments only we have room to present : 

" But I now challenge your attention to considerations more momen- 
tous than any which regard merely your personal honor and character — 
the preservation of law, of liberty, and the constitution. This House, I 
need not remind you, is a sanctuary ; a citadel of law, of order, and of 
liberty ; and it is here — it is here, in this exalted refuge — here, if any- 
where, will resistance be made to the storms of political frenzy, and the 
silent arts of corruption ; and if the constitution be destined ever to 
perish by the sacrilegious hands of the demagogue, or the usurper, which 
God avert, its expiring agonies will be witnessed on this floor. I must 
now bid you farewell. It is probably a final separation, a dissolution, 
perhaps forever, of those associations, which I hope have been mutually 
satisfactory. I would console myself, and you, however, with the reflec- 
tion, that though we are separated, we shall be engaged in the common 
cause of disseminating principles of freedom and social order. I shall 
always regard the proceedings of this body with interest and solicitude. 
I shall feel for its honor and for the national honor so intimately con- 
nected with it, and now take my leave of you with expressions of personal 
respect, and with prayers and good wishes." 

"At the conclusion of this speech," proceeds the report, "the whole 
Senate were in tears, and so unmanned that it was half an hour before 
they could recover themselves sufficiently to come to order and choose a 
Vice-President /r^ /^?;/." 

" At the President's on Monday, two of the Senators were relating 
these circumstances to a circle which had collected round them. One 
said he wished that the tradition might be preserved, as one of the'most 



THE TRUE AARON BURR, 21 

extraordinary events he had ever witnessed. Another Senator, being 
asked, on the day following that on which Mr. Burr took his leave, how 
long he was speaking, after a moment's pause, said he could form no 
idea : it might have been an hour and it might have been but a moment ; 
when he came to his senses, he seemed to have awakened as from a kind 
of trance. As soon as the Senate could compose themselves sufficiently 
to appoint a president /r^ tern., they came to the following resolution : 

" ' Resolved, unanimously, That the thanks of the Senate be presented 
to Aaron Burr, in testimony of the impartiality, dignity, and ability with 
which he has presided over their deliberations, and of their entire appro- 
bation of his conduct in the discharge of the arduous and important 
duties assigned him as president of the Senate.' " 

Thus passed this " well graced actor " from the political scene. He 
was a free man once more. What will he do next ? What new project 
will his busy brain and hand carve out ? were questions which every 
ongue in the country was now asking. But before passing to the later 
/ents of his career, we must pause to notice an event which had oc- 
curred a few months before, and which exerted a powerful influence on 
his subsequent fortunes. This event was the duel with Hamilton. 

Public opinion, the judgment of apparent facts, is sometimes correct, 
often unjust, but none the less necessary. Whether or not the public 
opinion which held Burr so strictly accountable for the death of Hamilton 
was just or unjust, a careful consideration of the facts anterior to, as well 
as those connected with the duel, in the calm unbiased spirit that time 
has made possible, will do much to determine. 

It would not be strange if we should find, that, in his case, the popular 
Ijudgment was both harsh and unjust, that he was as averse to the duel as 
Hamilton himself, that he used every (except dishonorable) means to 
avoid it, and that he only fought when absolutely forced to it, by the 
course of his rival and the cruel dictum of society ; and we may further 
agree and conclude, that he was the real victim of that tragedy, and not 
;he brilliant genius who fell beneath his fire. 

But for the facts. And first, as to the provocation. Without pausing 



22 THE TRUE AARON BURR, 

to notice the unsoldierly conduct of Hamilton toward Burr, while both 
were in the army, we will pass at once to the period when they came 
prominently into view as candidates for the highest honors of the State. 

To understand this fully let us glance for a moment at the real 
Alexander Hamilton and his career. What manner of man was he ? 
As with Washington, a little band of noisy claqueurs^ blind worship- 
pers, have exalted him into a demigod. Only in our day of critical 
analysis, impartial judgment, have men dared to question the truthful- 
ness of their dictum. Who and what then was the true Hamilton ? 
A man of brilliant parts, of many generous and lovable qualities, but 
possessed also of certain mean and ignoble traits. As a financier easily 
chief ; the American people cannot too highly honor him for what he did 
in funding their state and national debts and creating their financial sys- 
tem : but as a statesman beneath notice. He was a monarchist, an aris- 
tocrat, a servile copyist of English institutions and laws who distrusted 
the people and sought to limit their power. If by any chance he origin- 
ated anything, the new features he created were tenfold worse than 
the old forms they superseded. To him we are largely indebted for the 
Senate in our National Congress, — an utterly useless body, — and for the 
election of its members by State legislatures, easily purchasable, easily 
influenced, rather than directly by the people ; to him also for our absurd 
and ridiculous system of dual government, the most burdensome, confus- 
ing, paradoxical on earth. A system that instead of one national legislature, 
one uniform, universal code of laws, one national court having jurisdic- 
tion the country over, gives us forty-five local law-making bodies, forty-five 
diverse, often conflicting, codes of laws, and forty-five courts to execute 
them, each State with its Capitol, court-houses, penal institutions, judges, 
lawyers, court officials, sheriffs, and other officers of justice, all supported 
by the toiling taxpayers. 

Everywhere and at all times Hamilton distrusted the people, and the 
very first opportunity they got they retired him and his party permanently. 
Save in one or two unimportant instances he never was elected to public 
office by direct vote of the people and never could have been. Reference 
has been made to some of his baser traits. To particularize, he was 



THE TRUE AARON BURR, 23 

envious as Casca, he was a backbiter, a calumniator, an intriguer, a log 
roller,— indeed he was the author of this most pernicious practice,— a 
hypocrite and self seeker, to say nothing of sundry private vices which do 
not concern us. 

By 1792 Hamilton's " Burrophobia " had so increased as to not only 
obscure his judgment but destroy common prudence, for he spoke and 
wrote of Colonel Burr in a manner that he must have known would elicit 
a peremptory challenge should it come to the latter's ears. In the presi- 
dential canvass of that year his almost insane jealousy led him to write 
thus of the man against whose fair fame hardly a breath of suspicion had 
been raised : '^ I fear the other gentleman (Burr) is tmprincipled both as 
a public and private man. . . . In fact I take it he is for or agaiiist a?iy- 
thing, as it suits his interest or ambition. He is determined, as I conceive, 
to make his way to the head of the popular party and to climb per fas aut nef as 
to the highest honors of the State, and as much higher as circumstances may 
permit. Embarrassed, as I understand, in his circumstances, with an ex- 
travagant family, bold, enterprising and intriguing, I am mistaken if it be 
not his object to play the game of conspiracy, and I feel it to be a religious^X 
duty to oppose his career r September 26, he wrote again to another friend, 
Rufus King : '* Mr. Burr's integrity as an individual is not unimpeached, 
and as a public man, he is one of the worst sort. ... in a word, if we I 
have an embryo Ccesar in the United States, it is Burr.'' These words wgfe 
not the confidential utterances of one friend to another, they were written 
for effect, for in a few days King writes back, that '' Care has been taken 
to put our friends at the eastward on their guard." 

In 1794, Colonel Burr was nominated by his party as Minister to 
France, but Washington refused to ratify the nomination. "It was," he 
said, "the rule of his public life, to nominate no one for public office of 
whose integrity he was not insured." But when had Burr's integrity been 
questioned, except by political rivals ? or when had he ever betrayed a 
trust, public or private ? The instance cannot be found, and Washing- 
ton's distrust at this time, may readily be traced to the potent influence of 
Hamilton, then the confidential man of his administration. 

Agam, i- q8, when French insolence had provoked the young repub- 



24 THE TRUE AARON BURR, 

lie to warlike measures, and an army had been voted, and new general 
officers appointed, it was Hamilton again that blighted Burr's honest mili- 
tary ambitions. Sturdy John Adams gives the details in a letter written 
in 1815, and published in the tenth volume of his works. " I have never 
known," he writes, " the prejudice in favor of birth, parentage and descent, 
more conspicuous than in the instance of Col. Burr. That gentleman 
was connected by blood with many respectable families in New England. 
. . . He had served in the army, and came out of it with the character 
of a knight without fear, and an able officer. He had afterward studied 
and practiced law with application and success. Buoyed up on those 
religious partialities, and this military and juridical reputation, it is no 
wonder that Governor Clinton and Chancellor Livingston should take 
notice of him. They made him Attorney General, and the legislature 
sent him to Congress, where, I believe, he served six years. At the next 
election, he was, however, left out, and being at that time somewhat em- 
barrassed in circumstances, and reluctant to return to the bar, he would 
have rejoiced in an appointment in the army. 

" In this situation I proposed to Washington, and through him to the 
triumvirate* to nominate Col. Burr for a brigadier-general. Washing- 
ton's answer to me was, ' By all that I have known and heard. Col. Burr 
is a brave and able officer ; but the question is whether he has not equal 
talents at intrigue.' How shall I describe to you my sensations and re- 
flections at that moment. He had compelled me to promote over the 
heads of Lincoln, Clinton, Gates, Knox, and others, and even over Pinck- 
ney, one of his own triumvirates [Hamilton] the most restless^ impatient, 
artful, indefatigable, and unprincipled intriguer in the United States, if not 
in the world, to be second in command under himself^, and now dreaded 
an intriguer in a poor brigadier. He did however propose it, at least to 
Hamilton. But I was not permitted to nominate Burr. If I had been, 
what would have been the consequences ? Shall I say that Hamilton 
would have been now alive, and Hamilton and Burr now at the head of 
our affairs. What then ? If I had nominated Burr without the consent 
of the triumvirate, a negative in the Senate was certain." This letter is 
* Washington, Hamilton, and Pinckney. 



THE TRUE AARON BURR. . 2$ 

interesting as giving Adams* estimate of the two men ; it also shows 
Hamilton's marvellous facility for inoculating every one he met with his 
own disease of Burrophobiao 

Again, in 1800, when there was a possibility of Burr becoming Presi- 
dent, Hamilton renewed more openly and bitterly his attacks. December 
17, 1800, he wrote a letter to Mr. Wolcott of Connecticut, in which he 
says : " Let it not be imagined that Mr. Burr can be won to Federal views ; 
it is a vain hope ... to accom.plish his end, he must lean upon un- 
principled men, and will continue to adhere to the myrmidons who have 
hitherto surrounded him. To these he will no doubt add able rogues of 
the Federal party, but he will employ the rogues of all parties to overrule 
the good men of all parties, and to prosecute projects which wise men of 
every description will disapprove. These things are to be inferred with 
moral certainty from the character of the man. Every step in his career 
proves that he has formed himself upon the model of Catiline, and that he 
is too cold-blooded and too determined a conspirator ever to change his 
plan. Alas, when will men consult their reason rather than their passion ? 
Whatever they may imagine, the desire of mortifying the adverse party, 
must be the chief spring of the disposition to prefer Mr. Burr . . . 
Adieu to the Fedei-al Troy, if they once introduce this Grecian horse into their 
citadel y 

The August before, he had written to Senator Bayard of Delaware : 
" There seems to be too much probability that Jefferson or Burr will be 
President. The latter is intriguing with all his might in New Jersey, 
Rhode Island, and Vermont. He counts positively on the universal sup- 
port of the anti-Federalists, and that by some adventitious aid from other 
quarters he will overtop his friend Jefferson. Admitting the first point, 
; the conclusion may be realized, and, if it is so. Burr will certainly attempt 
to reform the Government a la Bonaparte. He is as unprincipled a?ic 
dangerous a man as any country can boast — as true a Catiline as ever met in 
midnight conclave y 

These letters read like the ravings of a monomaniac ; they are but 
samples of many, sown broadcast over the country for the sole purpose, 
as we must conclude, of blighting the prospects and reputation of Aaron 



26 THE TRUE AARON BURR. 

Burr. With his tongue Hamilton was even more busy and venomous. 
What its effect was on the community — coming from so eminent a source 
— may be imagined. All this time the victim was ignorant and even un- 
suspicious of his rival's conduct ; the two men were apparently on terms 
of friendship ; they met in professional consultations, and dined at one 
another's tables. It was in 1802, I believe, that Colonel Burr first heard 
of Hamilton's manner of conducting political campaigns, and he at once 
sought a personal interview and demanded an explanation. This Hamil- 
ton gave, and admitted that in the heat of a political canvass he had 
spoken hastily of Colonel Burr, and in terms not usual with gentlemen, 
and promised to be more careful in future. But in the succeeding cam- 
paign of 1804 partisan rivalry was most intense, and Hamilton's un- 
guarded expressions more violent and bitter than ever before ; so much so 
that Cheetham, editor of the American Citizen^ the organ of the Clintonian 
Republicans, paraded in the columns of his newspaper the query, Is the 
Vice-President sunk so low as to submit to be insulted by General Hamil- 
ton ? while at the same time the thousand gossipy tongues of society were 
taking up and repeating the same question. 

Reports of Hamilton's conduct were brought to Burr at the close of 
the campaign by certain renegade Federalists driven from the ranks by 
their chief's arrogance ; but he seems to have taken no action in the 
matter, and awaited further developments. At length his attention was 
called to a letter — written by Dr. Charles D. Cooper, of New York, and 
published in the newspapers during the campaign — which contained, 
among others, the following sentences : 

" Gen. Hamilton and Judge Kent have declared in substance, that they 
looked upon Mr. Burr to be a dangerous man, and one who ought not to 
be trusted with the reins of government," and " I could detail to you a 
still more despicable opinion, which Gen. Hamilton has expressed of Mr. 
Burr." Colonel Burr quietly marked the obnoxious passages, and sent 
them by the hand of his friend, William P. Van Ness, to General Hamil- 
ton, with a note which concluded as follows : 

"You must perceive, sir, the necessity of a prompt and unqualified 
acknowledgment or denial of the use of any expressions which would war- 



THE TRUE AARON BURR, 2^ 

rant the assertions of Mr. Cooper." The correspondence which followed 
is too voluminous for insertion here. In it Burr maintained the position 
taken in his first letter. Hamilton denied in part, equivocated, hedged, 
but absolutely refused to make the unqualified acknowledgment and de- 
nial asked for by Colonel Burr. Such a course would have reinstated his 
rival in public confidence, and destroyed the work of years. Society too 
might have considered it an apology from necessity rather than principle. 
Burr, on his part, all the lion in him roused by Hamilton's repeated and 
treacherous attacks, receded not a whit from his original demand. 
In one of his letters on the subject he most admirably defined his 
position. 

" Political opposition," said he, '' can never absolve gentlemen from 
the necessity of a rigid adherence to the laws of honor, and the rules of 
decorum. I neither claim such privilege, nor indulge it in others. The 
common sense of mankind afifixes to the epithet adopted by Dr. Cooper 
the idea of dishonor. It has been publicly applied to me, under the sanc- 
tion of your name. The question is not whether he has understood the 
meaning of the word, or has used it according to syntax and with gram- 
matical accuracy, but whether you have authorized this application, either 
directly, or by uttering expressions or opinions derogatory to my honor." 
And again in his last paper drawn up for the guidance of his second he 
enlarges upon this point. 

" Aaron Burr, far from conceiving that rivalship authorizes a latitude 
not otherwise justifiable, always feels great delicacy in such cases, and 
would think it meanness to speak of a rival, but in terms of respect ; to 
do justice to his merits, to be silent of his foibles. Such has invariably 
been his conduct towards Jay, Adams, and Hamilton, the only three who 
can be supposed to have stood in that relation to him. 

" That he has too much reason to believe that in regard to Mr. Hamil- 
ton there has been no such reciprocity. For several years his name has 
been lent to the support of base slanders. He has never had the gener- 
osity, the magnanimity, or the candor to contradict or disavow. Burr 
forbears to particularize, as it could only tend to produce new irritations, 
but having made great sacrifices for the sake of harmony, having exercised 



28 THE TRUE AARON BURR, 

forbearance until it approached humiliation, he has seen no effect pro- 
duced by such conduct, but a repetition of injury. 

" He is obliged to conclude that there is on the part of Mr. Hamilton, 
a settled and implacable malevolence ; that he will never cease in his 
conduct toward Mr. Burr, to violate those courtesies of life, and that 
hence he has no alternative but to announce these things to the world, 
which consistently with Mr. Burr's ideas of propriety, can be done in no 
way but that which he has adopted. He is incapable of revenge, still 
less is he capable of imitating the conduct of Mr. Hamilton by commit- 
ting secret depredation on his fame and character. But these things must 
have an end." 

These are hardly the words of a vindictive, blood-thirsty villain, and 
indeed they are not, for a more amiable, generous, and genial man than 
Colonel Burr never lived, but he could and would protect himself when 
wronged beyond endurance. The paper last quoted was Burr's ultima- 
tum, and Hamilton declaring its terms inadmissible, both parties prepared 
to fight. 

Never perhaps since the institution of the code was a meeting so 
inevitable as between these two. Both were soldiers, devotees of honor, 
and men of society. Both had recognized the code by their presence, 
either as principals or seconds, at several affairs of honor, and both were 
well aware that their position in politics and society depended on their 
not showing the white feather at this particular crisis. 

July II, 1804, at seven in the morning, was the day and hour fixed 
upon — twenty-four days after the first hostile message. 

According to Hamilton's biographers Burr spent the intervening time 
in practising with pistols. This is a falsehood. Aaron Burr was an 
adept with the pistol from his youth. He spent it as he had the other 
days of the year, in business, in celebrating Theodosia's birthday at his 
beautiful mansion on Richmond Hill, in meeting choice spirits at the 
convivial board — among the latter Hamilton himself at the annual banquet 
on July Fourth of the Society of the Cincinnati, of which both men were 
members and Hamilton President. On this occasion the latter is said to 
have been cheerful, even merry, Burr grave and reserved, never once 



THE TRUE AARON BURR, 29 

looking at the President until by request the latter consented to sing the 
famous old ballad of The Drum^ when he regarded him fixedly until the 
song was concluded. 

Both principals spent the greater part of the night of the loth in final 
preparations for the duel, and in writing to absent relatives what each felt 
might be his last words. Burr wrote a long letter to Theodosia, now in 
the distant State of South Carolina, the beloved wife of its Governor, 
Joseph Alston. He gave her explicit directions as to the disposal of his 
letters, papers, and servants. She was to burn all of the former which, if 
made public, could by any means injure any person. His faithful house- 
keeper, Peggy, was to have fifty dollars and a lot of ground, and the other 
servants he urged her to take into her own household. To herself he 
gave a seal of General Washington's, which he valued highly, probably 
from its having been a gift from the great man himself. 

"I am indebted to you my dearest Theodosia," he concluded, "for a 
very great portion of the happiness which I have enjoyed in this life. 
You have completely satisfied all that my heart and affections had hoped 
or even wished. With a little more perseverance, determination, and in- 
dustry, you will obtain all that my ambition or vanity had fondly ima- 
gined. Let your son have occasion to be proud that he had a mother. 
Adieu. Adieu." 

He also wrote a long letter to her husband, Governor Alston, in which 
he said : " If it should be my lot to fall yet I shall live in you and your 
son. I commit to you all that is most dear to me — my reputation and 
my daughter. Your talent and your attachments will be the guardian of 
the one — your kindness and your generosity of the other. Let me entreat 
you to stimulate and aid Theodosia in the cultivation of her mind. It is 
indispensable to her happiness and essential to yours. It is also of the 
utmost importance to your son. She would presently acquire a critical 
knowledge of Latin, English and all branches of natural philosophy. All 
this would be poured into your son. If you should differ with me as to 
the importance of this measure suffer me to ask it of you as a last favor. 
She will richly compensate your trouble." 

A few hours before morning this man of iron nerve, removing his 



30 THE TRUE AARON BURR, 

outer clothing, threw himself upon the sofa in his library and was soon 
fast asleep. 

Hamilton too, spent many of his last hours in writing tender epistles 
to his wife and children, and among others, a paper to posterity and the 
public at large which may be regarded as the meanest act of his life : for 
its sole object was, if he fell, to damn his opponent and pour all the vials 
*of the public's wrath upon his devoted head. He shrank from the coming 
contest, he wrote. Religion, his duty to his family and creditors forbade 
it. He bore no ill will to Colonel Burr apart from political opposition. 
'' As well," he concluded, "because it is possible that I may have injured 
Colonel Burr, however convinced myself that my opinions and declara- 
tions have been well founded, as from my general principles and temper 
in relation to similar affairs I have resolved if our interview is conducted 
in the usual manner, and it pleases God to give me the opportunity, to 
reserve and throw away my first fire, and I have thoughts even of reserv- 
ing my second fire, and thus giving a double opportunity to Colonel Burr 
to pause and to reflect. It is not however my intention to enter into any 
explanations on the ground. Apology from principle I hope rather than 
pride is out of the question. To those who with me abhorring the practice 
of dueling may think that I ought on no account to have added to the 
number of bad examples, I answer that my relative situation as well in 
public as in private enforcing all the considerations which constitute what 
men of the world denominate honor, imposed on me (as I thought) a 
peculiar necessity not to decline this call. The ability to be in the future 
useful whether in resisting mischief or effecting good in those crises of 
our public affairs which seem likely to happen would probably be insep- 
arable from a conformity with public prejudice in this particular." 

What magnanimity ! what generosity ! and yet if a moiety of it had 
but been exercised in the daily walks of life there would have been no 
occasion for this hostile meeting. But the most damaging thing about 
this paper is that the author of it had been from his youth up a staunch 
supporter of the duello as the most natural mode of settling disputes 
between gentlemen. He had defended it by serving as second to 
Colonel Laurens in his duel with General Lee. Three years before his 



THE TRUE AARON BURR. 3 1 

eldest son, the pride of his heart, had fallen in a duel caused by his f 
resenting an imputation on his father's honor, and not a word in con- \ 
demnation of it came from that father s lips. Over and over had his / 
friends and retainers fought and bled for him and his cause, and never before f 
had his voice been raised in condemnation of the modern Juggernaut, /a 

Colonel Burr always regarded this paper with the greatest disgust. / 
"It read," he said, "like the confession of a penitent monk." 

At daybreak on the morning of the nth John Swartwout, a friend 
and retainer of Col. Burr's, came to call his chief and was surprised 
to find him sleeping as tranquilly as a babe. He awakened him. William 
P. Van Ness, who was to act as second, and another friend or two arrived 
and the party hurried down to the Hudson where a row-boat had been 
provided to carry them to the opposite shore. The favorite duelling 
ground of those days, and almost the only one near the city, was a bench 
or shelf of rock on the face of the precipitous Palisades at Weehawken a 
little south of the spot where the tunnel of the West Shore Railroad now 
pierces it. It long since disappeared but a pillar on the brow of the cliff 
above fixes its position approximately. 

Burr's party reached the spot first as had been prearranged. It was 
a narrow, grassy shelf about eleven paces long by six feet wide. Shaded 
by a dense wood, inaccessible to pedestrians along the river bank, and 
with no house in sight it was peculiarly well fitted for the secret and 
bloody encounters that had given it the soubriquet of the American 
Golgotha. It was a clear, bright sunshiny morning. A few moments 
before seven Hamilton and his party arrived. 

After the usual salutations between principals and seconds the latter 
proceeded to measure off ten full paces and to cast lots for choice of 
position and as to which second should give the fatal word. Fate was 
unkind to Hamilton in both cases. Nathaniel Pendleton, his second, won 
and placed his principal at the upper end of the ledge facing both the 
sun and flashing water beneath, which was a mistake as the glare from 
both must have interfered with the aim. 

As Pendleton handed his pistol to Hamilton he asked if he would 
have the hair trigger set. ^^Not this time,'' replied his principal. 



32 THE TRUE AARON BURR, 

At the word ''^Present''' they were to fire as soon as they pleased. The 
pistols were raised, Burr facing the cliff, Hamilton with his back to it 
looking over toward the city. '' One moment," said Hamilton and re- 
moving his spectacles he wiped them carefully with his handkerchief, 
then replaced them. The glare dimmed his sight and he attributed 
it to the spectacles.. "Present," then came the word. Hamilton fired 
first. There can be no doubt of this. Burr on the only occasion he 
ever revisited the spot, so declared, and his second Van Ness, maintained 
it to his dying day. " When he stood up to fire," said Burr, " he caught 
my eye and quailed under it ; he looked like a convicted felon." 
His ball severed a twig over Burr's head. The latter fired a second 
later, his bullet entering his adversary's right side and inflicting a mortal 
wound. 

Burr was quite unprepared for the popular clamor against him that 
arose on Hamilton's death. Duels, many of them ending in death, were 
of almost daily occurrence at Weehawken and had been for a generation 
of men. In few of them could the challenging party show the provoca- 
tion that he had received. But never before had the duelist's bullet 
sought so shining a mark. Besides politics was in it. Jefferson and his 
faction saw in the duel an opportunity to kill a dangerous rival ; the 
Clinton and Livingston factions of New York were equally perspicuous. 
As for the Federalists whose high priest had fallen, they were beside them- 
selves with grief and rage. So the press fulminated, the pulpit anathema- 
tized, and orators and pamphleteers the country over united in denouncing 
the man who had routed Federalism forever, brought in Democracy, made 
Jefferson President, and set forward the hand of progress farther on 
the dial plate of time in a day than had any of his contemporaries in a 
century. But in the South and West dwelt men who admired courage 
and manliness, and among these Burr still had a following. 

Fierce demands v/ere made for his indictment as a murderer and 
to escape this and allow the popular excitement to abate. Colonel Burr, 
who it is to be remembered was still Vice-President, set out in July, 1804, 
on a Southern tour, visiting his daughter Theodosia in her beautiful 
home, " The Oaks," near Georgetov/n, S. C, and spending several weeks 



THE TRUE AARON BURR. 33 

with old political friends in South Carolina and other Southern States. 
From this tour he returned in time to resume for the last time his duties 
as President of the Senate, as before narrated. 

On retiring from the Vice-Presidency Colonel Burr was a free man 
once more. To the superficial view his political career was ended. But 
it is certain that if he had after a time settled down in New York 
to his profession of the law he might in a few years have regained his 
old political ascendency. The common people loved him. He had that 
rare quality, personal magnetism. He had tact. He was a soldier of 
approved valor, put to the test on the field and in the imminent deadly 
breach. He was generous, sympathetic, democratic, in that he had 
a regard for the under dog in the fight, and a stern hater of all sham, 
pretence, and affectation. Matthew Lyon, the fierce democrat who 
figured as principal in the first Congressional fracas, urged him to come 
to Tennessee, hang out his shingle at Nashville, and run for the next 
Congress, assuring him of a triumphant election. 

But Colonel Burr decided to leave the United States. In point of 
fact he was not in sympathy with its form of government, which, profess- 
ing to be republican, he thought was in reality oligarchical. He had 
himself some ideas as to a model republic, and thought he could improve 
vastly on the much lauded and overpraised Constitution of 1789. From 
his conversations in later life we can outline his scheme of government 
with considerable confidence. He thought that government best which 
governed least, and planned for a much simpler form of government than 
that of the Federalist. One law-making body chosen directly and every 
year by the people and responsible solely to them, the referendum for all 
important questions, an . exe9utive also elected directly by the people 
for a six-years' term and inelegible for re-election, and two courts, a trial 
court and an appellate court, for each judicial district, with arbitration for 
all minor cases, were its principal features. 

Colonel Burr, it is well known, had little respect for our system of 
jurisprudence, which is based on the old English common law with all its 
archaisms, its absurd terminology and foolish repetitions, its quips and 
quibbles, stays, appeals, adjournments, injustices, so that a case may run 



34 THE TRUE AARON BURR, 

the gauntlet of the courts from ten to fifteen years before final adjudica- 
tion. In his system he would have introduced some vital reforms, par- 
ticularly in the much lauded jury system. Instead of throwing out a 
drag net and hauling in as jurors all sorts and conditions of men, ignorant 
of the rules of evidence, unaccustomed to weighing facts, he would have 
proposed a school for the education of professional jurors, from the 
graduates of which he would have selected his panel. There would have 
been six instead of twelve, and a majority vote would have decided. 
From their decision there would have been no appeal as to matters of 
fact, and but one as to questions of law, and that one to an appellate 
court composed of six judges of approved learning and integrity. 

Is it not certain that with a code and system thus simplified, the busi- 
ness of the courts would go forward with a vigor and celerity wholly 
unknown under the present regime ? If Colonel Burr could have been 
let alone it is certain we should have seen these novel plans and theories 
put in operation. The question with him now was where could he go to 
set up this model republic. The United States, his own country, was 
committed to the plan of Hamilton. Mexico, on the south, rose before 
his vision, a land of old renown, believed by many to have been the cradle 
of the human race, but now, under the rule of the cruel, ignorant Span- 
iard, submerged in wretchedness and degradation. Here was a country 
that could easily be wrested from its masters. There he could set up his 
model government of such surpassing excellence that all other nations 
must accept it as their model. 

In the spring of 1805, with this nebulous plan in mind, he set out for 
a six-months' tour of the Western and Southwestern country. He had 
many friends in those sections, old army comrades, Senators over whom 
he had presided, professional friends, social acquaintances made during 
his term of office, and from conversations with them he returned con- 
vinced that his plan was perfectly feasible. 

War with Spain seemed inevitable. The bent toward Southwestern 
acquisition in the West and South was large, his own military reputation* 
was such that at the first unfurling of his standard for a descent on 
Mexico he could count on an army of the choicest, most gallant spirits, 



THE TRUE AARON BURR, 35 

while on its once setting foot on Mexican soil, the great mass of the people 
there might be counted on to rise in revolt. 

Burr determined to raise an army, take Mexico, and found there his 
empire, which was to be a one-man government at first, but which as soon 
as the people were ripe for it should be made a republic in fact as well as 
in name. Such was his plan, and the whole plan. To say that he con- 
templated a severance of the West from the East and the setting up of a 
trans-Alleghany empire, is to write him down for a fool or madman. 
The thing was impossible of execution even if he had desired it. It was 
filibustering of course, but then there was never a ranker set of fili- 
busters than those brought to these shores by the Mayfloiver, and them 
we revere, and rightly, too, as most perfect models of correctness ; in 
fact, the whole history of the race is little more than a record of the 
filibustering of the strong against the weak. 

But to return to our subject. His plan was predicated largely on the 
fact of a war with Spain. Jefferson's prudence averted that war, and Burr 
turned his energies toward advancing a secondary scheme which he had 
formed, should the first prove impracticable. This was the establishment 
of a colony on the Washita River near Texas, to be used as a base of op- 
erations in future attempts upon Mexico. General Wilkinson, then Gov- 
ernor of the new territory of Louisiana, Daniel Clark, a wealthy New 
Orleans merchant, Andrew Jackson, Governor Allston, General Adair of 
Kentucky, Colonel Dupeister, and hundreds of other prominent persons 
were cognizant of this scheme, and interested in it. As a preliminary 
step 50,000 acres of land on the Washita River, known as the " Bastrop 
Lands," were bought by Colonel Burr's agents, and preparations for colo- 
nizing it were urged forward. Provisions were bought, recruits enlisted, 
and boats wherewith to descend the Mississippi contracted for. The 
rendezvous was at Blennerhasset's Island, — an historic spot, and one de- 
manding more than a passing mention. 

No locality in the land is better known, and not alone in forensic con- 
tests have its velvet lawns and quiet glades, its gardens and fountains, and 
i shrubberies "which Shenstone might have envied," been held up to 
i the gaze of an admiring and pitying public. The owner of this " earthly 



36 THE TRUE AARON BURR, 

paradise," too, has received his full share of adulation ; fifty years ago no 
subject was more fascinating to the average writer, male or female, than 
Harman Blennerhasset and his alleged wrongs, and no tragedy of that 
day was thought complete which did not present this unfortunate man as 
the Amiable Victim, and Aaron Burr as the Heavy Villain of its dra77iatis 
perso7i(B. 

In point of fact, the story of Burr's connection with Blennerhasset is 
a very prosaic one. They first met in 1805, when Burr was on his West- 
ern tour. He was journeying down the Ohio with a friend, in a row-boat, 
and passing the island, landed from motives of curiosity, having heard 
that it was the home of an eccentric foreigner. He was kindly received, 
pressed to stay to tea, remained, spent the evening with his entertainers, 
and resumed his voyage late at night. The two did not meet again until 
Colonel Burr came West on his scheme for colonizing the Washita Lands. 

Who was Blennerhasset ? A renegade Englishman, driven from his 
own country for the crime of incest, who had fled into the western wilder- 
ness to escape the reproaches of his friends and perhaps the stings of con- 
science. He had reared on his island a plain, wooden, two-story structure, 
half barracks, half blockhouse, and had cleared a few acres of land, part 
of it lawn, part garden, part cultivated field. Probably ten thousand dol- 
lars would have met the actual cost of his improvements. Be this as it 
may, he was now nearly bankrupt and needed no urging to engage in any 
enterprise that promised both excitement to drown memory and money to 
repair his fortunes. His " island," the paradise of the historical romancers, 
was a narrow strip of land in the Ohio River, fourteen miles below Mari- 
etta, three or four miles in length and comprising about two hundred and 
seventy acres of land. It was neither picturesque nor romantic, certainly 
not an Eden. 

Here it was that in the summer of 1806, preparations were busily 
made for colonizing the tract on the Washita. On the 4th of August, 
these were so far advanced that Colonel Burr with his accomplished 
daughter Theodosia left the island for the Cumberland River, where an- 
other detachment was rendezvoused, leaving Blennerhasset to complete 
the preparations on his island, and then join his chief late in the fall at 



THE TRUE AARON BURR. 37 

the mouth of the Cumberland, where the united force would proceed 
down the Mississippi on its enterprise. But before these plans could be 
carried out, Burr was surprised to learn, from the President himself, that 
his colonization scheme was treasonable. 

On the 25th of November, 1806, Jefferson received from General Wil- 
kinson (Burr's ancient friend and ally, and then commanding the depart- 
ment of Louisiana) a cipher letter, purporting to be from Burr to him 
(Wilkinson), proposing that he should use the army under his command 
to provoke a war with Spain, and also hinting at the erection of a great 
Southern empire. This letter, grossly exaggerated and altered as it was, 
was accompanied by such representations from Wilkinson as to raise in 
the mind of the President the direst visions of treasons and stratagems ; 
his action on receipt of it was that of a man bereft of sober judgment, for 
nothing could be more absurd than to suppose that so shrewd and politic 
a man as Aaron Burr would entertain for a moment the project of sedu- 
cing from its allegiance the great West, then the stronghold of republican- 
ism and devotedly attached to the administration. To the President and 
his Cabinet, however, it was evident that a heavy conspiracy w^as already 
on foot in the West ; and on the 27th of November the former issued a 
proclamation, declaring that unlawful enterprises were under way in the 
Western States, and warning all persons to withdraw from the same, un- 
der penalty of incurring prosecution "with all the rigors of the law," 

We who have been made so familiar with treason that its aspect is no 
longer frightful, can hardly realize the ominous and hateful sound of the 
word in 1800, nor the excitement and fear which convulsed the country on 
the publication of the President's ridiculous proclamation. Latent patri- 
otism effervesced and spent its force, from lack of other vent, in denunci- 
ation of the supposed conspirators. The President sent a special message 
to Congress denouncing Burr as a traitor, and asking for an act to sus- 
pend the writ of habeas corpus, which was granted by the Senate but re- 
jected by the House. Military companies paraded daily, and crowded 
their offers of assistance upon the General Government ; forts and arse- 
nals were put in warlike trim, the navy was strengthened, and the news- 
papers and the administration vied with each other in circulating the 



38 THE TRUE AARON BURR. 

wildest rumors and most palpable untruths ; in short, popular hatred and 
mistrust were brought to the highest pitch, and there held suspended — a 
sort of moral avalanche ready to be hurled upon the luckless wtght who 
should be even suspected of the odious crime of treason. Meanwhile 
Colonel Burr, a peaceful citizen of the United States, was pursuing his 
peaceful and laudable schemes on the banks of the Ohio. The President's 
proclamation reached Blennerhasset's Island early in December. On the 
4th, Blennerhasset learned that a detachment of militia from Wood 
County, Va., would make a descent on the island the next day, and cap- 
ture himself, the boats, stores, and all the property of the expedition ; 
and that night, secretly, with four boats and thirty men hastily collected, 
he left the island and fled with his utmost speed down the river. At the 
mouth of the Cumberland he met his chief, and the combined flotilla pro- 
ceeded on down the Mississippi. 

Had a cunning limner like our Nast been present, he might have 
found material for a dozen spirited cartoons in this first insurrectionary 
expedition against the Government. There were the flat-boats, thirteen 
in number, borne by the sluggish current, and guided by sixty red-shirted 
backwoodsmen. Prominent objects on their decks were the chicken-coops 
and pig-barracks with their noisy occupants. Sacks of flour, barrels of 
bacon, and kiln-dried corn, hams, and other munitions of war, with such 
deadly instruments as ploughs, spades, hoes, pots, skillets and the like, 
formed the bulk of the cargo. On lines stretched across the deck hung 
seed-ears and slices of pumpkin drying in the sun ; children played un- 
terrified about this grim array ; and near at hand their mothers sewed and 
gossiped ; the linnet and canary sang in their gilded cages, and the antics 
of a pet monkey joined to the strains of a superannuated banjo relieved 
the tedium of the voyage. 

In this manner, day after day the grim armament floated down the 
river, carrying terror and dismay wherever it penetrated. At Bayou 
Pierre, thirty miles above Natchez, a crisis occurred. The Natchez 
militia, two hundred and seventy-five strong, hearing of Burr's arrival, 
marched out to meet him. Drawing near his encampment, they were re- 
inforced by a battalion of cavalry, and, halting, sent a peremptory sum- 



THE TRUE AARON BURR. 39 

mons to Burr to surrender. The latter talked freely with the messengers, 
declared his innocence of any treasonable designs, and protested against 
such high-handed and arbitrary proceedings. But the officers persisted 
in their demand, and at last Burr agreed to meet Governor Mead next 
day and surrender his entire force, with the stipulation, however, that he 
should not be handed over for trial to the military authorities. He was 
then conveyed to the neighboring town of Washington, a Grand Jury was 
hastily impanelled, and he was brought before them for trial — but on 
what charges ? The grand jury struggled with this question for days, but 
was unable to answer it ; and a higher tribunal a few weeks later fared 
no better; but at length, after numberless motions and discussions in 
which Burr completely captivated the populace with his displays of learn- 
ing and eloquence, the grand jury returned that "on a due investigation 
of the evidence brought before them, Aaron Burr has not been guilty of 
any crime or misdemeanor against the laws of the United States." They 
also went further, and presented as a grievance "the late military expedi- 
tion, unnecessarily, as they conceive, fitted out against the person and 
property of Aaron Burr." They also presented as a grievance, 
destructive of personal liberty, the late military arrests, made without 
warrant, and as they conceive, without other lawful authority. Thus 
ended the first attempt to indict Colonel Burr for the crime of 
treason. 

He was a free man again, but not secure, for orders had already been 
issued by the President " to take the body of Aaron Burr^ alive or dead, and 
to confiscate his prope7'ty'* Finding himself in the power of a military 
despotism, he determined to escape, and crossing the Mississippi, made 
the best of his way southward toward the port of Pensacola, where lay a 
British man-of-war on which he hoped to find refuge. 

Some days after these events two travellers might have been seen 
descending a hill near the residence of Colonel Hinson, in the town of 
Wakefield, Alabama : these persons were Colonel Burr and his guide. At 
the foot of the hill they were intercepted by a file of dragoons led by 
Captain Gaines, commanding Fort Stoddard near by. Captain Gaines 
rode forward, " I presume, sir," said he, '' that I have the honor of 



40 THE TRUE AARON BURR, 

addressing Colonel Burr." " I am a traveller in the country," replied the 
person addressed, " and do not recognize your right to ask such a ques- 
tion." '* I arrest you at the instance of the Federal Government," was 
Gaines' rejoinder. "By what authority do you arrest travellers on the 
highway, bound on their own private business ? " asked the stranger. "I 
am an officer of the army ; I hold in my hands the proclamation of the 
President and Governor directing your arrest," was the reply. " You are 
a young man, and may not be aware of the responsibilities which result 
from arresting travellers," said the person addressed. "I am aware of 
the responsibility, but I know my duty," said Gaines. 

It was all in vain that Colonel Burr protested his innocence, declared 
that all this arose from the malevolence of his enemies, and pointed 
out the liabilities the captain would incur by arresting him. " My mind 
is made up," said Gaines, and the former Vice-President was arrested 
and duly lodged within the walls of a military fortress. 

For two weeks Colonel Burr remained at Fort Stoddard, then, in 
charge of a file of soldiers under command of one Perkins, he was sent 
overland to the city of Richmond, where the Government had decided his 
trial should take place. One incident only of this difficult and perilous 
journey shall be narrated. After the party had passed the wilderness and 
had come to the outposts of civilization, the utmost care was taken to 
prevent the prisoner from communicating his situation to his friends, and 
through them appealing to the civil authorities for relief. Perkins had 
carefully avoided the large towns in his way, but while passing through 
Chester, in South Carolina, they chanced to ride near a small tavern, in 
front of which quite a group of citizens had collected. This was Burr's 
opportunity, and he embraced it. 

Suddenly throwing himself from his horse, he exclaimed with a loud 
voice : " I am Aaron Burr, under military arrest, and claim the protection 
of the civil authorities ! " In a moment Perkins sprang to the ground 
and presenting his pistols to Burr's head sternly ordered him to remount. 
" I will not ! " Burr shouted defiantly, whereupon Perkins, a perfect speci- 
men of a backwoodsman, seized him around the waist and threw him 
forcibly into his saddle, a soldier then seized his bridle, j.nd the whole 



THE TRUE AARON BURR. 4 1 

cavalcade swept off into the forest before the astonished people had time 
to comprehend the situation. 

It is said that Burr, thus a second time kidnapped, was almost wild 
with excitement. " The indifference of the people," says Mr. Parton, 
" the indignity he had suffered, the thought of his innocence of any viola- 
tion of the law, the triumph his enemies were about to have over him, all 
rushed into his mind, and for the moment unmanned him. For the first 
and only time, amid all his unexampled misfortunes, his iron fortitude 
forsook him, and he burst into tears." 

This, however, lasted but a moment, then the prisoner's usual imper- 
turbability of manner returned, and the journey was finished as it had 
been conducted, without a murmur or word of complaint from him. The 
party arrived in Richmond on Thursday, the 26th of March, 1807. O^ 
Monday the prisoner was brought before Chief-Justice Marshall for ex- 
amination previous to commitment, and after three days of argument 
was committed for misdemeanor only, the Judge leaving the charge of 
treason to be considered by the Grand Jury. 

He was arraigned before the Grand Jury May 22, 1807. Never be- 
fore or since, perhaps, has the country witnessed a trial of such magni- 
tude, conducted by such an array of talent, and the progress of which was 
followed with such intense interest by the whole country. All the mag- 
nates of Virginia, General Jackson, John Randolph, Senator Giles, dis- 
tinguished public men, fair ladies without number, crowded the court-room. 
The sympathies of the people of Richmond, and of the ladies especially, 
were with the prisoner, and many expressions of sympathy and regard 
were tendered him during his forced stay in the city. Two judges con- 
ducted the trial, John Marshall, Chief Justice of the United States, and 
Cyrus Griffin, Judge of the District Court of Virginia. Burr was fortu- 
nate in his chief judge. " The soul of dignity and honor," says a contem- 
porary, " prudent, courageous, alive to censure, but immovably resolute 
to do right, John Marshall was the Washington of the bench, an honest 
man and just judge." It was to his firmness and judicial impartiality no 
doubt that Burr owed his life, or at least, liberty. 

The lawyers employed were worthy of the occasion. Engaged in the 



42 THE TRUE AARON BURR. 

prosecution, were George Hay, Monroe's son-in-law, William Wirt, the 
renowned orator, and Alexander McRae, Lieutenant-Governor of Vir- 
ginia. For the defence appeared Aaron Burr, the Launcelot of this legal 
tournament ; Edmund Randolph, Washington's Attorney-General and 
Secretary of State ; Wickham, called the ablest lawyer at the Richmond 
bar ; Luther Martin of Maryland, Jefferson's *' Federal bull-dog " ; and 
Benjamin Botts of Virginia. 

At the opening of the trial it was found that an impartial jury could 
not be obtained. Of the whole panel summoned, all admitted that they 
had formed an opinion adverse to the prisoner. " I pray the court to 
notice," remarked Burr, while the jurors were being challenged, "from 
the scene before us, how many attempts have been made to prejudice my 
cause." 

At length, late in the afternoon, a jury was obtained, not one of whom 
but had admitted his conviction of the prisoner's guilt. Of the trial, or 
rather trials, that followed, it is impossible for us to speak in detail. A 
report of it was published in two large octavo volumes, and may be 
found in any well-stocked law library. Mr. Davis and Mr. Parton also 
give able summaries. The trial was divided into two parts, one before 
the grand jury on a motion for a commitment of the prisoner on a charge 
of treason, the other was the trial for treason itself after a true bill had 
been found. Between the two was an interval of some six weeks. 

The trial was opened by Colonel Burr, who addressed the court, as to 
the admissibility of certain evidence which he supposed would be offered. 
Hay replied, "hoping the court would grant no special indulgence to 
Colonel Burr, who stood on the same footing as any other man who had 
committed a crime." "Would to God," was the retort of Burr, "that I 
did stand on the same footing with any other man. This is the first 
time I have been permitted to enjoy the rights of a citizen. How have I 
been brought hither ? " 

In the speech that followed, he made many other strong points, and 
eminently Burrian ; but the strongest, and that which most thoroughly 
demoralized the prosecution, was the stand taken in the very first stages 
of the trial, that before any evidence as to the prisoner's guilt could be 



THE TRUE AARON BURR. 43 

admitted, the actoi treason must first be proved, just as it would be mani- 
festly absurd to indict a man for murder until the fact of the killing was 
first established. In the course of the argument on this point, Mr. Botts 
defined in a masterly manner, the act of treason. " First," said he, " it 
must be proved that there was an actual war ; a war of acts and not of 
intentions. Secondly, the prisoner must be proved to have committed an 
overt act in that war. Thirdly, the overt act must be proved to have been 
committed in the district where the trial takes place. Fourthly, the overt 
act must be proved by two witnesses," and this view of the crime of 
treason was sustained by the court. 

The prosecution could not conceal the dismay and confusion which 
this decision caused in their ranks. To prove the prisoner's guilt, they 
had relied chiefly on ex parte evidence, suspicious acts, the prisoner's acts, 
and his own unguarded words. Now they were forced to go back of all 
this, and before a syllable of evidence in regard to the prisoner or his acts 
could be admitted, must prove the fact that actual war had been levied 
against the United States. However, gallantly recovering from this con- 
ti'ete77ips^ they at once set to work to establish the overt act. Wilkinson 
was sent for from New Orleans, General Eaton brought from New Jer- 
sey, and the Morgans from Kentucky. Hardly a person that had written 
or spoken to Colonel Burr during the past two years but was brought to 
the witness stand, in the effort to prove that war had actually been levied 
against the United States. Even post offices were broken open and rifled 
of his papers ; it was all in vain, however ; no war was to be found, or as 
Colonel Burr pithily expressed it in a speech to the court on the third day 
of the trial : " Our President is a lawyer and a great one too. He cer- 
tainly ought to know what it is that constitutes a war. Six months ago he 
proclaimed that there was a civil war, and yet for six months have they 
been hunting for it, and still cannot find one spot where it existed. There 
was, to be sure, a most terrible war in the newspapers, but nowhere else. 
When I appeared before the grand jury in Kentucky, they had no charge 
to bring against me. When I appeared for a second time before a grand 
jury in the Mississippi territory, there was nothing to appear against me, 
and the Judge even told the United States Attorney, that if he did not send 



44 THE TRUE AARON BURR, 

up the bill before the grand jury, he himself would proceed to name as many 
witnesses as he could and bring it before the court. Still there was no 
proof of war. At length, however, the Spaniards invaded our territory, 
and yet there was no war. But, sir, if there was a war, certainly no man 
can pretend to say that the Government is able to find it out. The scene 
to which they have now hunted it is only three hundred miles distant, 
and still there is no evidence to prove this war." 

At length, after thirty-three days of argument, the grand jury brought 
in an indictment against Aaron Burr for treason, and also an indictment 
for misdemeanor. Blennerhasset was also indicted for the same offences. 
The trial for treason began on the 3d of August ; the same judges and 
counsel were in attendance. Here the same difficulty was experienced in 
securing an impartial jury. Fourteen days were spent in the effort. Of 
the first venire of 48, but four were found unprejudiced ; of a second 
venire of 48 summoned, all admitted that they had formed opinions un- 
favorable to the prisoner. The defence even moved to quash the trial on 
the ground that an impartial jury could not be obtained. The matter was 
at length compromised by allowing the defence to choose eight from the 
veiiire last summoned, which, added to the four chosen from the first, 
made up the required number. 

The second trial was in many respects a repetition of the first. The 
witnesses chiefly relied on to prove the overt act were General Eaton, an 
old army officer, the Morgans, and General Wilkinson. 

Eaton and the Morgans gave an exaggerated account of Burr's wild 
talk of severing the Union — words that he certainly would never have 
uttered had he really entertained such designs. Wilkinson produced the 
famous cipher letter, which had raised the tempest, but which proved 
nothing, except that the two men had had a prior agreement as to certain 
objects to be attained. It should be remarked here that Wilkinson by his 
own confession was a perjurer as well as a traitor. At the trial he swore 
that the letter produced was the o?ie received from Burr and tinaltered ; 
afterward he admitted that he had made some slight alterations in it. 
Burr declared after the trial, that thirty of the fifty witnesses examined 
had perjured themselves. On the 29th of August, the debate was con- 



THE TRUE AARON BURR. 45 

eluded by Mn Randolph. On the 30th, the judge delivered his charge. 
On the 31st the jury brought in their verdict — the most irregular and 
cowardly ever returned by an American jury. "We of the jury," so the 
verdict ran, *' say that Aaron Burr is not proved to be guilty under the 
indictment by any evidence submitted to us. We therefore find him not 
guilty." It was the Scotch verdict of not proven^ and was designed to 
fasten still more firmly in the minds of the people conviction of the 
prisoner's guilt. Scarcely was the reading of the verdict concluded when 
Colonel Burr was on his feet vehemently protesting against such a verdict, 
and it was only after a spirited debate that he succeeded in having it entered 
as simply "not guilty." On the trial for misdemeanor he was also acquitted. 

This ended the matter. Of all the cases of political persecution in 
this country, from Matthew Lyon and Judge Chase to Andrew Johnson 
and James G. Blaine, Aaron Burr's was the saddest, most causeless, and 
most disgraceful of all. For here it was not only sought to hang an in- 
nocent man in order to remove a political rival, but the ineffaceable 
stigma of traitor was to be placed upon his name and memory ; and that 
man a citizen of the greatest eminence, who had fought in the war which 
made the Nation possible, and who had been elected to the second highest 
office in the gift of the people. 

Imagination can scarcely conceive what Mexico would have been to- 
day had Burr been suffered to carry out his plans. Liberal and progres- 
sive, he would have made education universal ; art and science would 
have flourished as never before ; her mines would have been developed, 
and their vast treasures spent in the construction of public works, the 
encouragement of learning, and the glory of the State. We should have 
read, too, the riddle of her marvellous history, for the world's poets and 
scholars, uncovering her monuments and penetrating her secret cloisters, 
would have unearthed the wealth of hieroglyphic and manuscript there 
hidden, and have given us the epic of lost Atlantis, tragedies more thrill- 
ing and romantic than have ever been written, and the history of that 
mysterious Mayan race which constructed an empire of civilization that 
was finished and mature when our oldest political systems were in the 
weakness of infancy. 



46 THE TRUE AARON BURR. 

Aaron Burr was bankrupt in fortune, friends and reputation. His 
position in the land for which he had done and suffered so much had be- 
come unendurable. The Government still breathed out threatenings 
against him, and the belief of his guilt was firmly fixed in the minds of 
the people. It has been demonstrated that nothing but time and Almighty 
power can remove a popular prejudice. Burr was too wise to attempt it ; 
he did better, he left it behind him. Early in June, 1808, threatened with 
a second arrest by the Government, he sailed in disguise under the name 
of Edwards, in the British mail-packet Clarissa bound from New York to 
Liverpool. The Clarissa left port on the 9th of June, and on the 14th of 
July she arrived at Liverpool. 

Of Colonel Burr's four years' wandering in the Old World, we cannot 
speak with any degree of particularity. He remained in England nearly 
a year, or until April, 1809 ; then, induced by the representations of the 
American Minister, Lord Liverpool addressed him a polite note, which 
stated that the presence of Colonel Burr in Great Britain was embarrassing 
to his Majesty's Government, and that it was the wish and expectation of 
the Government that he should remove. Burr, who had been dined and 
feted by most of the literary and society magnates of London, had visited 
the tomb of Shakespeare and travelled about the kingdom as far as to 
Edinburgh, was quite ready to make his Majesty's mind easy by leaving 
the inhospitable isle ; and accordingly on the 24th of April, 1809, sailed 
for Gottenburg in Sweden, not deeming it safe at that time to visit France. 
He remained in Sweden five months, enjoying Swedish hospitality to the 
full, and received as a distinguished guest even by royalty itself. Late in 
October he set out with two companions, Americans, for Paris. The 
party proceeded by easy stages to Elsinore, from Elsinore to Copenhagen, 
and from thence to Hamburg, on the confines of French territory. Here 
they waited for passports to the French capital. 

While detained at Hamburg he made a short excursion into Germany, 
visiting Hanover, Gottingen, Weimar, Frankfort, and other places. At 
Weimar he met Goethe, Wieland, the Baroness de Stein, and other eminent 
persons. Returning to Mayence, where the passports were to be sent, he 
waited a few weeks until they arrived, and then proceeded without further 



THE TRUE AARON BURR, 47 

incident to Paris. In Paris Colonel Burr lived fifteen months ; the last 
ten months spent in trying to get away, for Jefferson had now become a 
private citizen, and the thought would obtrude itself that he might return 
in safety to his native land. 

But the representations of the American Minister had made him an 
object of suspicion to the French Government, and he was refused permis- 
sion to leave the country. At length, however, in July, 181 1, the Govern- 
ment was induced to remove its surveillance, and wringing a reluctantly 
given passport from the American char g^ d'affaires^ through an accidental 
acquaintance with some of that gentleman's doubtful transactions, he be- 
took himself to Amsterdam, where lay the Vigilant^ Captain Combes, and 
about to sail for America. The captain, a gallant, generous son of the 
sea, gladly gave the ex-Vice-President passage, and on the ist of October, 
181 1, Aaron Burr bade adieu forever, and we may imagine without regret, 
to the continent of Europe. But outside the harbor a crushing misfor- 
tune awaited him, for the Vigilant was set upon by a British cruiser and 
carried into the English harbor of Yarmouth, and held as a prize, subject 
to the decision of the admiralty. Burr at once proceeded to London and 
there remained six months awaiting an opportunity to return to America. 
Few vessels were then sailing, and the captains of those that were were 
easily persuaded by the American consul to refuse him a passage. At 
length, however, he found a Captain Potter, of the ship Aurora^ who agreed 
to land him in Boston for the sum of thirty pounds. 

Burr again paid his passage money, received his passports from the 
British Government, now all friendliness, and five weeks thereafter was 
safe in Boston Harbor. A month later, in May, 181 2, the second war 
with Great Britain was declared, and the Atlantic became a dangerous 
highway for American vessels. 

With the return of Colonel Burr to his native country ends our brief 
resumi oi his public career. The story of the remaining twenty-five years 
of his life is a pitiful one, — a mere record of slights and scorns, — a con- 
tinued kicking of a man who was down, by the Philistines of the day. 

Immediately on his return he opened a law-office in New York, and 
much of his former business returned to him, but he never regained his 



48 THE TRUE AARON BURR. 

social or political status ; and he never sought to regain it. Conscious of 
the injustice done him, and retaining his pride of character to the last, he 
disdained to make explanations, and repaid scorn for scorn, and contempt 
with indifference. But to the few friends who remained faithful, he was 
the same brilliant, genial, fascinating man as of old, and these he was 
wont to entertain for hours, when off duty, with vivid descriptions of the 
men and things of a former generation, interspersed with brilliant anec- 
dotes, and profound observations on pending issues in politics and state- 
craft. Nothing, it is said, could be more valuable and interesting than 
these recollections, and it is to the incalculable loss of American literature 
that they were not preserved in print. Burr did entertain such a project 
at one time, and would probably have carried it out but for the loss of 
his most valuable papers in the same shipwreck that bereft him of his 
daughter and rendered him dead to ambition or any worldly interest. 

Before passing to narrate the closing scenes of his life, a few notes as 
to the appearance, character, and habits of our distinguished subject will 
be thought necessary and interesting. A writer in the New York Leader 
thus describes him as he appeared in the later years of life : 

"I knew him personally, from my boyhood, and saw him often in thei 
quiet scenes of domestic life, in the house of a gentleman who was always 
his friend. His personal appearance was peculiar. Under the medium 
height, his figure was well proportioned, sinewy and elastic, appearing in i 
every movement to be governed more by the mental than mere physical 
attributes. His head was not large, but, as phrenologists say, well pro- 
portioned. His forehead was high, protruding, but narrow directly over 
the eyes, and widening immediately back. The head was well, even 
classically, poised upon the shoulders ; his feet and hands were peculiarly 
small ; the nose rather large, with open, expanding nostrils ; and the ears 
so small as almost to be a deformity. But the feature which gave char- 
acter and tone to all, and which made his presence felt, was the eye. 
Perfectly round, not large, deep hazel in color, it had an expression which 
no one who had seen it could ever forget. No man could stand in the 
presence of Col. Burr, with his eyes fixed on him, and not feel that they 
pierced his innermost thoughts. There was a power in his look — a mag- 



THE TRUE AARON BURR, 49 

netism, if I may be allowed the expression, — which few persons could resist. 
The expression of his face when I knew him, — it was first in 1823, — 
bore in repose a sad and melancholy air, yet the features were mobile, and 
when addressing ladies, uttering some pleasantry or witticism, the smile 
around his mouth was literally beautiful, and his eyes would lose their 
piercing look, and become tender and gentle. His voice was not power- 
ful, but round, full, and crisp, and though never loud, was tender or im- 
pressive as the case required. His elocution in conversation was perfect, 
always precisely suited to the occasion and the style of thought to which 
he was giving expression. His language was terse, almost epigrammati- 
cal, and he rarely indulged in illustration or metaphor ; his words were 
always the most apt that could be used, and he had command of a 
vocabulary which would make Roguet of the Thesaurus envious. His 
manners were polished, his motions graceful and easy, yet he never for a 
moment lost his noble and dignified bearing. In mere physical beauty, 
in elegance of face or figure, in brilliancy of the eye, I have seen many 
men superior to Col. Burr, but in a bearing and presence which you felt 
to be something beyond other men, with character in every motion and 
expression, in a life of over forty years, and after seeing all the great 
men of the country during that period, I have never seen his peer. He 
wore his hair — which till quite late in life was long and thick, excepting 
on the front of the head, — massed up on the top held by a small shell 
comb, the whole head profusely powdered. . . . His usual dress was 
a single blue-breasted coat, with standing collar, a buff vest, and dark 
pants ; in winter he wore a fur cap and buckskin mittens." 

In regard to the character of Colonel Burr, the verdict of the honest 
and intelligent student of his career will be much more favorable than is 
the popular judgment. Of him it may be said more truly than of any 
other, that circumstances made him bad wherein he was bad, and that 
party rancor and sectarian bigotry painted the portrait which has come 
down to posterity. In proof of the truth of these assertions I will present 
a paper which was read by Judge John Greenwood, of Brooklyn, before 
the Long Island Historical Society, begging the reader to observe that 
the author's intimate acquaintance with Colonel Burr, his thorough 



50 THE TRUE AARON BURR. 

integrity and judicial training, render his judgment unassailable, whereas 
the idle and vicious tales from which the adverse judgment has been 
formed are without parentage and cannot be substantiated by any proof 
that would be received in a court of law. The italics in the paper are 
our own. They mark the passages which treat — very delicately and yet 
very satisfactorily — of Colonel Burr's relations with women, and make 
further remark on the subject unnecessary, except to say that all with 
whom the writer has conversed, and who were from their position best 
calculated to judge, take substantially the same view of the case as-that 
expressed by Judge Greenwood. The paper is given nearly entire : 

"As to Col. Burr I enjoyed peculiar advantages of knowledge, having 
been, for a period of about six years, namely, from about 1814 to 1820, a 
clerk and student in his office, and in constant intercourse with him, and 
this at a period of my life when the strongest impressions were likely to 
be made upon me. The dark side of Col. Burr's character has been very 
often presented, and it is unnecessary that I should make another exhibi- 
tion of it. It gives me pleasure to be able to bring into the light, features 
upon which it is more agreeable to dwell, and some of which, indeed, may 
be contemplated with advantage. Let me speak first of his temperance 
in eating and drinking. It would be natural to suppose that a man some- 
what unrestricted, as it must be admitted he was, in one respect which 
may be regarded as in some degree correlative, would not be very much 
restrained in the indulgences of the table. But the fact is otherwise. His 
diet was very light : a cup of coffee and a roll, with but seldom the addi- 
tion of an egg, and never of meat or fish, constituted his breakfast. His 
dinner, in a majority of cases, consisted of roasted potatoes, seasoned with 
a little salt and butter, or perhaps of some thickened milk (called some- 
times ' bojtny clabber ') sweetened with sugar. A cup of black tea with a 
slice of bread and butter was the last meal ; and these constituted as a 
general thing his whole sustenance for twenty-four hours. The excep- 
tion was when some friend was invited by him to dinner. He was very 
fond, when seated at table, of having his favorite cat near him, and it was 
a pleasant thing to see puss sit on the arm of his chair and keep him com- 
pany. As to spirituous liquors, I have no hesitation in saying, from per- 



THE TRUE AARON BURR, 5I 

sonal knowledge, that he never used them. His usual beverage was 
claret and water, sweetened with loaf sugar. His wine he bought by the 
cask, and had bottled at his residence. The result of his abstemious 
course of living was, that he enjoyed uniform good health, which was 
seldom, if ever, interrupted. 

" His industry was of the most remarkable character. Indeed it may 
with truth be said that he never was idle. He was always employed in 
some way, and what is more, required every one under him to be so. 
Sometimes in coming through the office, and observing that I was not at 
work, as I might not have been for the moment, he would say, * Master 
John, can't you find something to do ? ' although it is safe to say that no 
clerk in an office was ever more constantly worked than I was. 

" He would rise at an early hour in the morning, devote himself to the 
business of the day — for he had a large general practice — and usually re- 
tired to rest not sooner than twelve, or half-past twelve at night. In this 
way he would accomplish a vast amount of work. His perseverance and 
indefatigability, too, were strikingly characteristic. No plan or purpose 
once formed was abandoned, and no amount of labor could discourage 
him or cause him to desist. To begin a work was, with him, to finish it. 
How widely, in this respect, he differed from some professional men of 
his own and the present day, I need hardly say. I could recur to some, 
greatly his juniors in years, who were and are his very opposites in this 
respect. He was for having a thing done, too, as soon as it could be, 
and not, as some have supposed, for seeing how long it could be put off 
before it was begun. 

" But I must say a word of his manner in court. He seemed in the 
street and everywhere in public, to be strongly conscious that he was a 
mark of observation, not indeed in the sense in which Hamlet is spoken 
of as "the observed of all observers," but as an object, to some, of 
curiosity, to others, of hostile or suspicious regard. Carrying this feeling 
into the court-room his manner was somewhat reserved, though never 
submissive, and he used no unnecessary words. He would present at 
once the main points of his case, and as his preparation was thorough, 
would usually be successful. But he was not eloquent. If he thought 



52 THE TRUE AARON BURR. 

his dignity assailed in any manner, even inferentially, his rebuke was 
withering in the cutting sarcasm of its few words, and the lightning glance 
of his terrible eyes, which few could withstand. I may say in this con- 
nection, that his self-possession, under the most trying circumstances, 
was wonderful, and that he probably never knew what it was to fear a 
human being. 

" If there was anything which Burr's proud spirit supremely despised, 
it was a mean, prying curiosity. He early inculcated on me the lesson 
never to read even an opened letter addressed to another, which might 
be lying in my way, and never to look over another who was writing a 
letter. It was one of my duties to copy his letters, and I shall never 
forget the withering and indignant look which, on one occasion, he gave 
to a person in the office who endeavored to see what I was copying. 
Neither would he tolerate any impertinent gazing or staring at him, as if 
to spy out his secret thoughts and reflections, 

" You will be glad to hear me say something of his very fascinating 
powers in conversation. It may seem strange, if not incredible, that a 
man who had passed through such vicissitudes as he had, and who must 
have had such a crowd of early and pressing memories on his mind, 
should be able to preserve a uniform serenity and even cheerfulness, but 
such is the fact. 

** His manners were easy and his carriage graceful, and he had a 
winning smile in moments of pleasant intercourse that seemed almost to 
charm you. He would laugh, too, sometimes, as if his heart was 
bubbling with joy, and its effect was irresistible. Nobody could tell a 
story or an anecdote better than he could, and nobody enjoyed it better 
than he did himself. His maxim was simviter in modo^ fortiter in re. Yet, 
where spirit and a determined manner were required, probably no man 
ever showed them more effectively. Although comparatively small in 
person, and light in frame, I have seen him rebuke, and put to silence, 
men of position in society greatly his superiors in physical strength, who 
^ were wanting in respect in their language towards him. 

" Colonel Burr was a social man, that is, he liked the company of a 
friend and would spend a half hour in conversation with him very agree- 



THE TRUE AARON BURR, 53 

ably. Occasionally one with whom he had been on intimate terms, and 
who had shared his adventures, like Samuel Swartwout, or William 
Hosack, would call and have a pleasant time. Dr. W. J. McNevin was 
also intimate with him. He was very fond of young company. Children 
were delighted with him. He not only took an interest in their sports, 
but conciliated them, and attached them to him by presents. The latter, 
I may observe, was also one of his modes of pleasing the more mature of 
the gentler sex. 

" He was very fond of alluding to events in his military life. Indeed 
I think he chiefly prided himself upon his military character. His 
counsel was much sought by foreigners engaged in revolutionary enter- 
prises, who happened to be in New York, and during the period of the 
revolution in Caraccas, Generals Carrera and Ribas, who took part in it, 
and during its existence visited New York, were on very intimate terms 
with him. The former was a gentleman of great talent but of modest and 
retired bearing. 

** There are some who suppose that Colonel Burr had no virtues. 
This is a mistake. He was true in his friendships, and would go any 
length to serve a friend, and he had also the strongest affections. I shall 
never forget the incidents concerning the loss of his daughter Theodosia, 
then wife of Governor Allston of South Carolina. Soon after Colonel 
Burr's return from Europe to New York, he arranged for her to come on 
and visit him, and she set out, as is known, from Georgetown in a small 
schooner, called the Patriot. Timothy Green, a retired lawyer in New 
York, a most worthy man, and an old friend of Colonel Burr, went on by 
land to accompany her. The fact of the departure of the vessel, with his 
daughter and Mr. Green on board, was communicated by letter from 
Governor Allston to Colonel Burr, and he looked forward with anticipa- 
tions of joy to the meeting which, after so many years of separation, was 
to take place between himself and his dear child. A full time for the 
arrival of the vessel at New York elapsed, but she did not come. As day 
after day passed and still nothing was seen or heard of the vessel or of 
his daughter, that face which had before shown no gloom or sadness, 
began to exhibit the signs of deep and deeper concern. Every means 



54 THE TRUE AARON BURR. 

was resorted to to obtain information, but no tidings were ever heard of 
the vessel or of her upon whom all the affection of his nature had been 
bestowed. * Hope deferred ' did indeed in this case make sick and nearly 
crush the heart. His symbol, which he loved occasionally to stamp upon 
the seal of a letter, was a rock in the tempest-torn ocean, which neither 
wind nor wave could move. But his firm and manly nature, which no 
danger or reverse nor any of the previous circumstances of life had been 
able to shake, was near giving way. It was interesting, though painful, to 
witness his struggle; but he did rise superior to his grief and the light once 
more shone upon his countenance. But it was ever after a subdued light. 

** Something will be expected to be said by me, with regard to his 
duel with Gen. Hamilton. So much has been written on this subject 
already that I can add nothing to the history of the transaction. Every 
one will form an opinion for himself as to who was to blame in that un- 
fortunate affair. I will say, however, that it was a matter to which Col. 
Burr, from delicacy, never referred. He was no boaster and no calum- 
niator, and certainly he would have no word of censure for his dead 
antagonist. I will relate, however, an anecdote told me by him, indicat- 
ing the degree of hostility felt towards him by some after that transaction, 
and at the same time his own intrepidity, although to the latter he 
seemed not to attach the slightest importance. 

** He was travelling in the interior of the State, and had reached a 
country tavern where he was to stay for the night. He was seated by 
a table in his room engaged in writing, when the landlord came up and 
announced that two young men were below and wished to see him, and 
added that their manner seemed rather singular. He had heard that two 
very enthusiastic young gentlemen were on his track, and he was not 
therefore surprised at the announcement. Taking out his pistols and 
laying them before him, he told the landlord to show them up. They 
came up, and as one was about to advance into his room Burr told them 
not to approach a foot nearer. Then addressing him he said : * What is 
your business ? ' The foremost said: * Are you Col. Burr ? ' * Yes, said 
the Colonel. ' Well,' says the young man, * we have come to take your 
life, and mean to have it before we go away.' Upon this, Burr, laying 



THE TRUE AARON BURR. 55 

his hand upon one of his pistols, replied: ' You are brave fellows, are 
you not, to come here two of you against one man ? Now, if either of 
you has any courage, come out with me, and choose your own distance, 
and I '11 give you a chance to make fame. But if you don't accept this 
proposal,' bringing the severest glance of his terrible eyes to bear upon 
them, ' I '11 take the life of the first one of you that raises his arm.' They 
were both cowed, and walked off like puppies. 

" It may not be out of place here to relate another incident illustrating 
Colonel Burr's remarkable presence of mind, which occurred while he 
was in Paris. He had received a remittance of a considerable sum of 
money, and his valet formed a plan to rob him of it by coming upon him 
unawares with a loaded pistol. Burr was engaged in reading or writing 
in his room at a late hour at night, when the fellow entered with pistol in 
hand. Burr recognized him in a moment, and, turning suddenly around, 
said to him sternly: ' How dare you come into the room with your hat 
on ? ' The valet, struck with sudden awe and the consciousness of hav- 
ing violated that decorum which had from habit virtually become a part 
of his nature, raised his arm to take off his hat, when Burr rushed upon 
him, tripped him down, wrested his pistol from him, and, calling for aid, 
had him secured and carried off. 

" Col. Burr, as is well known, was what is termed 2i good shot with a 
pistol. To illustrate his skill in this respect I will relate a circumstance 
told me by an old colored man named ' Harry,' who was in the habit, 
while I was with Col. Burr, of coming to his house to clean his boots and 
do little jobs. Harry had lived many years with the Colonel while the 
latter's residence was at Richmond Hill in the upper part of New York. 
The Colonel often had dinner parties, and after dinner the gentlemen 
would go out upon the back piazza to enjoy the air, and would amuse 
themselves by firing with a pistol at apples which Harry would throw up 
for them. Said Harry, laughing in the way peculiar to an old African, 
* De Colonel would hit 'em almos ev'ry time, while de oder gentlement 
could n't hit 'em at all.' 

" The charge against Col. Burr of treason has formed a prominent 
part of his history. All the facts developed on the trial have been long 



56 THE TRUE AARON BURR, 

since published, and it will not of course be expected that I should refer 
to them. I will say, however, that this was a subject upon which he was 
always disposed, whenever proper, to converse with those who were in- 
timate with him. I myself have conversed with him upon it. He said 
he had been entirely misrepresented and misunderstood as to the object 
which he had in view. He had never, he stated, any design hostile to 
the United States or any part of it. His object was, as he said, to make 
himself master of Mexico and place himself at the head of it, and if they 
had let him alone he would have done it. He seemed to entertain a great 
contempt for Gen. Wilkinson, who was in command at the South at the 
time, considering him a very weak man. 

" Colonel Burr, like other great men, had some remarkable eccen- 
tricities of character. He was very fond of all sorts of inventions, and 
always trying experiments. He puzzled his brain for a long time to get 
some motive power which would avoid the necessity of using fire or 
steam, of which Livingston and Fulton then held the monopoly. He had 
models made, and I also got my ambition excited about it. But his 
efforts, and my own philosophical powers and chemical knowledge fell 
short, after a hard trial, of accomplishing the object. One great end which 
he desired to attain in housekeeping was to save fuel ^ not money, and I 
have known him to go to an expense, I should judge, of forty or fifty 
dollars in contrivances to save five dollars in the value of wood consumed. 
He was very liberal and even reckless in spending money for certain pur- 
poses, while in others, such as bills of mechanics, he was very particular 
and scrutinizing. He liked to have a bill looked over very carefully and 
reduced to as low an amount as the case would admit of, but so far as I 
know, never practised any dishonesty or refused to pay any just debt 
which he had incurred. 

" I have foreborne thus far to refer to a matter connected with the 
character of Col. Burr, and identified almost with his name, and although 
not within the plan with which I started in this notice, I ought not, per- 
haps, to omit it. I allude of course to his gallantries. This is a topic 
upon which it would be impossible to speak with any particularity without 
transcending that limit of propriety within which all public discussions 



THE TRUE AARON BURR. 57 

should be confined. I shall, therefore, speak of it in the most general 
terms. / do not believe that Col. Burr was any worse in this respect than 
many ffien of his own and of the present day who pass for better men. 

" The difference between them is, that he was much less disguised 
and that he did not pretend to be what he was not. / think he was quite 
as much sought after by the other sex as he was a seeker. There seemed in- 
deed to be a charm and fascination about him which continued to a late 
period of his life, and which was too powerful for the frail, and some- 
times even for the strong, to resist. I know that he has been charged 
with much wrong in this respect, and it may be with truth. I feel no 
disposition to justify him in his course, or even to palliate what must be 
regarded in its best aspect as a vice. But I have heard him say, and if it 
be true it is certainly much in his favor, that he never deceived or made a 
false promise to a woman in his life. This is much more than many can 
say, who have a much better name than he has. 

" His married life with Mrs. Prevost (who had died before I went 
into his office) was of the most affectionate character, and his fidelity 
never questioned. There is another thing, too, which I will add to his 
credit. He was always a gentleman in his language and deportment. 
Nothing of a low, ribald, indecent, or even indelicate character ever 
escaped his lips. He had no disposition to corrupt others. One other 
thing I will add in this connection: Col. Burr, in everything relating to 
business, and indeed in all his epistolary correspondence with men, had 
a special regard for the maxim that * things written remain,' and was very 
careful as to what he wrote. But with regard to the other sex, such was 
his confidence in them, that he wrote to them with very little restraint. 
. . . I must point you to one admirable and strong characteristic in 
him. He sought with young men, in whom he felt an interest, to graft 
them, as it were, with his own indomitable will, energy, and perseverance. 
I can truly say that, although I was often overtasked beyond my powers, 
and even to the injury, no doubt, of my health, so that his course seemed 
to me to be over-exacting and oppressive, yet that he constantly incited 
me to progress in all the various modes and departments of mental cult- 
ure, even in music, the influence of which he deemed of great importance, 



58 THE TRUE AARON BURR, 

although he had but little taste for, and no knowledge of it himself; and 
that my success in life, as far as I have succeeded, has been owing to the 
habits of industry and perseverance which were formed under his training. 
" As to the character of his mind, it would be probably presumptuous 
in me to attempt to analyze it. If I should express an opinion, it would 
be that it was not large, comprehensive, and philosophical, but rather 
quick, penetrating, and discerning. He was a shrewd planner, and in- 
defatigable and persevering in carrying out his plans, although he did not 
always succeed in accomplishing them. He was a good scholar, ac- 
quainted with polite literature, and spoke the French and Spanish — the 
former fluently. I think his heart was not in the profession of the law, 
and that he followed it principally for its gains. He was, however, a 
good lawyer, was versed in the common, civil, and international law; 
acquainted generally with the reports of adjudicated cases, and in 
preparing important cases usually traced up the law to its ancient 
sources. But political and military life seemed to interest him more than 
anything else, although he never neglected his business. He prided 
himself probably more upon his military qualities than upon any other, 
and if he could have gratified his ambition by becoming Emperor of 
Mexico he would no doubt have been in his glory." 

The following reminiscence from a New York newspaper will be found 
interesting: " Just round the corner (from Broadway) in Reade Street — 
we believe on ground now occupied by Stewart's — was the office, for 
many of the later years of his life, tenanted by Aaron Burr. We, when 
a boy, remember seeing him there often. It was a dark, smoky, obscure 
sort of a double-room, typical of his fortunes. Burr had entirely lost caste 
for thirty years before he died, and whatever may be said of his charac- 
ter and conduct, we think nothing can excuse the craven meanness of the 
many, who, having fawned around him in the days of his elevation, de- 
serted and reviled him in the aftertime of misfortune. Burr had much of 
the bad man in him (faith, we 'd like to see the human mould that has 
not), but he was dauntless, intellectual, and possessed the warm tempera- 
ment of an artist. Yes, we remember well that dry, bent, brown-faced 



THE TRUE AARON BURR, 59 

little old man, polite as Chesterfield himself, that used to sit by an ancient 
baize table, in the half-light of the dust-covered room, there— not often 
with work to do — indeed he generally seemed meditating. 

•' We can now understand it all, though he seemed a strange person- 
age then. What thoughts must have burned and whirled through that 
old man's brain — he, who came within a vote or two of seating himself as 
a successor of Washington. Even to our boyish judgment then, he was 
invested with the dignity of a historic theme. He had all the air of a 
gentleman of the old school, was respectful, self-possessed, and bland, but 
never familiar. He had seen a hundred men morally as unscrupulous as 
himself, more lucky, for some reason or other, than himself. He was 
down J he was old. He awaited his fate with Spartan calmness — knowing 
that not a tear would fall when he should be put under the sod." 

At my request, Mr. Parton kindly transmitted to me the Burr papers 
which had collected since his work was published, with full permission to 
use them as I thought best. Among them I find this interesting extract, 
from a religious journal, concerning Colonel Burr's early education: 

** The oldest son of President Edwards congratulating a friend on 
having a family of sons, said to him with much earnestness, * Remember 
there is but one mode of family government. I have brought up and 
educated fourteen boys, two of whom I brought, or rather suffered to 
grow, up without the rod. One of these was my youngest brother,* and 
the other Aaron Burr, my sister's only son, both of whom had lost their 
parents in childhood, and from my observation and experience, I tell 
you, sir, a maple-sugar government will never answer. Beware how you 
let the first act of disobedience in your little boys go unnoticed, and, 
unless evidence of repentance be manifest, unpunished.' " \ 

Among the papers above referred to I also found a letter from Colonel 
Burr to a legal friend in New York, which, as showing the sprightliness 
and vivacity of his spirit, that even age could not tame, I feel moved to 
produce here. It is dated at Albany, March 15, 1814. 

* Pierrepont Edwards. 

f This is not in character with what Colonel Burr used to relate as to his uncle's mode 
of government, for we have Burr's own testimony that on one occasion, at least, his uncle 
" licked him like a sack." 



6o THE TRUE AARON BURR. 

" I pray you never again to be silent, in hopes, etc. That apology 
has been worn out more than looo years ago; from you something original 
is expected. Letters which require and deserve to be answered at all, 
should be answered immediately. Your pleadings, though not very 
technical, are in substance good as to the point charged, but not altogether 
satisfactory as to the subsequent period. Keep a better lookout. Yes, 
send copies of my letters to Graves and Mad. F. by the Cartel about to 
sail for Gottenburg. To the letter of Mad. F. add: 

" ' P. S. lyeme Mars, 1814, 

" ' Le sauvage est actuellement a cent lieues dans I'interieure sur une 
affaire tres int^ressante pour lui et pour A. H. C. ; on aura le resultat au 
bout d'un mois.' * 

" Still, my dear John, I am a sceptic about your health. You have 
not been pleased to name your Hippocrate. I can at this distance give 
no instruction, other than you observe a very temperate diet. About 
three weeks ago I enclosed you twenty dollars, /. ^., ten for Nancy, and 
ten for contingencies, the receipt has not been acknowledged. I no 
longer hear anything of the employment of your time. It is feared that 
things do not go well. A. B." 

From " Personal Recollections of Aaron Burr," published in a late 
issue of the Cincinnati Commercial^ I extract the following: " I once 
heard Hon Edward Everett relate an incident that occurred in Albany in 
his presence, that forcibly displayed his power over minds the most 
strongly biased against him. It was immediately after his secret and sad 
return from Europe. A case of great pecuniary importance, if I remem- 
ber right, of the Van Rensselaers against the city, in which the plaintiffs 
had apparently made no preparations for an advocate, only employing a 
young lawyer to prepare and present the case. Surprise at this fact be- 
came indignation, when it was whispered about that Aaron Burr had 

* This "postscript " might be freely translated : " The savage is actually away a hun- 
dred miles in the interior, on an affair very interesting to himself and to A. H. C. ; one 
may expect to hear the result by the end of the month." 

Perhaps some one who remembers the men and things of that period can tell us who 
the "savage" and A. H. C. were. 



THE TRUE AARON BURR. 6l 

returned from Europe and was employed in the case. Such was the in- 
dignation that court and bar conspired to put him down with coughs, 
hisses, and jeers, — that they would not hear him, — as an advocate lynch 
him. The trial proceeded, and at the proper time a side door opened, 
and a little figure walked silently in and addressed the court. Not a 
cough, hiss, stamp, scratch of a pen, or even breath, or apparently a 
wink, disturbed that calm musical voice during a long speech, and the 
case was won." 

Miss Alice Brown Morrison, in a pleasant sketch of Colonel Burr in 
the February, 1901, number of Modern Culture^ gives this anecdote: 

" Not long ago the writer had the privilege of talking with a most de- 
lightful gentlewoman who forms a connecting link between the Colonial 
days and our own times, when the conversation turned upon the heroes 
of Revolutionary times, and some one present observed that while we 
knew the ' real George Washington,' there was one man whose character 
would never be as an open book to us, who would always be a problem 
to moralists and students of psychic research, and that man was Aaron 
Burr. Then the old lady's eyes suddenly brightened and a faint color 
crept into her cheeks, as she said with a fine pride in her voice, * I once 
knew Aaron Burr, and many a time as a child have I sat upon his knee, 
while he amused me with some of his fascinating nonsense.' 

" An appreciative murmur of surprise and delight greeted her, and 
nothing loath she told her little story. 

" * I was a child six years old, when I first saw Col. Burr,' she said. 
* My father was giving a course of lectures at West Point, and with my 
mother, my little sister, and myself happened to be stopping at the same 
hotel with the man who had stirred the nations. I think Col. Burr was 
in West Point upon legal business, but that I cannot remember; what I 
do remember distinctly was his personal appearance which left an in- 
delible impression on my childish memory, — a rather small, exceedingly 
graceful man, straight as an arrow, dressed wholly in black, when other 
men wore colors. His hair was snow white, and under his white eye- 
brows flashed those wonderful black eyes whose magnetic attraction few 
could resist. Every child in the house adored him, and we followed him 



62 THE TRUE AARON BURR, 

about like faithful dogs, in a way that would certainly have been trying to 
him if he had not returned our devotion, which I am sure he did. 

" * Many years before this, when Col. Burr's fame was at its zenith, 
he happened to travel in the same stage coach with my father and mother, 
from Utica to Albany. It seems that my father was noted, even among 
the gentlemen of the old school, for his gentle breeding and courtly man- 
ners, and particularly for his devotion to his wife. My mother told me 
that Col. Burr kept watching them in silence and at last leaned over- 
towards them and said to my father: " I beg your pardon, sir, but I have : 
never seen more beautiful courtesy between a man and a woman, and I 
have been puzzling over your relationship. I have decided that you are 
too devoted for brother and sister, so pray tell me which is it, wife or 
sweetheart ? " 

" * The tone, the smile with which this question was accompanied was 
indescribably winning, and, the relationship explained, an animated 1 
conversation followed. 

" * Col. Burr did not forget this incident, nor did my parents (indeed 
no one who ever came in contact with that fascinating man ever forgot 
the circumstances), and when they met again at West Point they all 
became great friends. We children could hardly wait until we were 
dressed for the afternoon, when we made straight for the piazza, where 
our hero was sure to be waiting for us. We had, what was rare at that 
time for children, a little wicker carriage, and after we were seated in it, 
Col. Burr, acting as horse, would run nimbly up and down the long 
piazza, or through the wide corridors with us, amidst shrieks of delighted 
laughter from all the little spectators. How I wish I could remember 
what he talked of, for though he was taciturn when men were near, when 
he was with women and children his mirth bubbled freely and spontane- 
ously, notwithstanding the trouble the years had brought him. Ah, what 
a man ! Who shall now say what he was ? Who indeed shall say what 
manner of man he was ? ' " 

A few years before his death Colonel Burr married Madame Jumel, a 
wealthy lady of New York, and many years his junior. The marriage 
resulted unhappily, and after a few months was annulled. 



THE TRUE AARON BURR. 63 

In December, 1833, while Colonel Burr was walking in Broadway with 
a friend, he was stricken with a paralysis, which confined him for some 
weeks to his room. He recovered from this attack, however, almost 
wholly, and was seen about the streets as usual. This was followed in a 
few months by a second stroke, which deprived him forever of all use of 
his lower limbs; two years of inaction then followed, during which, al- 
though his mind was as active and strong as ever, his physical powers 
were gradually failing. During these years he was the honored guest of 
a lady, whose father had been his intimate friend, and who had herself 
known him from childhood. This lady proved to be a true Samaritan, 
one of those rare souls who embody the truths of Christianity in their 
lives. Unmindful of the construction put upon her acts by society, she 
cared for the old man with tender assiduity, as long as life lasted, and 
after his death used both tongue and pen in defending his memory. 

In the spring of 1836 he grew rapidly weaker, and it became evident 
to all that he had not many months to live. It chanced that the house 
occupied by his kind benefactress was to be pulled down that summer, 
and the Colonel was removed for the season to the inn at Port Richmond, 
Staten Island. Here he died on Wednesday, the 14th of September, 
1836, aged nearly eighty-one years. 

The Rev. Dr. Van Pelt of the Dutch Reformed Church frequently 
visited him during his last days and administered spiritual consolation; 
and Colonel Burr always received his visits with courtesy and thankful- 
ness. On one of these occasions, in answer to the Doctor's queries as 
to his view of the Holy Scriptures, he responded, " They are the most 
perfect system of truth the world has ever seen." At his last visit the 
clergyman inquired as to his faith in God and his hope of salvation 
through the merits of Christ, to which he responded with evident emo- 
tion, that on that subject he was coy, meaning, as the Doctor thought, 
that on a subject so momentous he felt cautious about expressing an 
opinion. A small party of friends accompanied the body to Princeton, 
where, in the college chapel, the funeral ceremonies were performed. 
The funeral sermon was preached by Dr. Carnahan, then president of the 
college. It was charitable in tone, and was delivered before a large 



64 THE TRUE AARON BURR, 

audience, composed of the townspeople and the college students. Hisj 
remains were followed to the grave by the faculty and Cliosophic Societ3rj 
of the college, a large body of citizens, and by a detachment of thel 
Mercer Guards of Princeton, who fired over his grave the customary vol- 
leys. His grave is near those of his honored father and grandfather, and: 
is marked by a simple and unpretentious monument of marble, whicht 
bears this inscription: 

AARON BURR. 

Born February 6th, 1756. 

Died September 14th, 1836. 

A Colonel in the Army of the Revolution. 

Vice-President of the United States from 1801 to 1805. 



\ 




/S02 



i^ua. 



THEODOSIA BURR ALSTON. 

BORN at Albany, 1783, lost at sea in January, 1813 — between the 
two dates fill in such joy, brilliant promise, beauty, accomplish- 
ments, intense sorrow, and tragic fate, as never woman knew 
before, and one has the history of this remarkable lady in epitome. No 
daughter ever received a heartier welcome to the home and hearts of 
her parents, and none ever awakened greater parental care and solici- 
tude than did she. Her father was so constituted that while he would 
have been proud of and honored a son, a daughter called out all the 
strength and affection of his nature, and he devoted himself to her care 
and education with a zeal and assiduity that knew no cessation. With the 
earliest glimmering of reason her education began. She was taught to sleep 
alone in the rooms of the great mansion at Richmond Hill, to be prompt, 
diligent, and self-reliant, polite and mannerly to all, kind and considerate 
to her inferiors, and was grounded in all the elements of a solid and orna- 
mental education. At the age of ten, " she was precocious, like all her 
race, and was accounted a prodigy; and she really was a child of pre- 
cocious endowments." She is also spoken of at this time as having the 
family diminutiveness, and as being a plump, pretty, and blooming girl. 
Her father had the utmost horror of her growing into the mere fashion- 
able woman of society and, while a senator at Philadelphia, thus wrote to 
his wife on the subject: "Cursed effects of fashionable education, of 
v/hich both sexes are the advocates, and yours the victims; if I could 
foresee that Theo. would become a mere fashionable woman with all the 
attendant frivolity and vacuity of mind, adorned with whatever grace or 
allurement, I would earnestly pray God to take her forthwith hence." 
There was not much danger of her becoming so, for at the time that 
letter was written, she was reading Horace and Terence in the original, 

6=; 



(^ THEODOSIA BURR ALSTON, j 

mastering the Greek grammar, studying Gibbon, speaking French, prac- 
tising on the piano, and taking lessons in dancing and skating. 

At the age of fourteen she became the mistress of her father's man- 
sion at Richmond Hill and entertained his numerous guests — senators, 
judges, grave divines, foreign notabilities — with the most charming grace: 
and dignity. At that early age she was her father's friend and counsel-- 
lor. She wrote letters that displayed a masculine force and directness. 
She translated grave political treatises from English to French, wasi 
familiar with the philosophical and economical writers of her day, and 
proficient in the Greek, Latin, and German tongues, and was, what she: 
is freely admitted to have been, the most charming and accomplished 
woman of her day. In her eighteenth year she was married to Joseph 
Alston of South Carolina, then twenty-two years of age, a gentleman of 
large wealth and assured position, and a lawyer by profession, though he 
had never entered into practice. 

It was the gossip of the day, and still believed by some, that she was 
forced into this marriage by her father, from political and prudential 
reasons chiefly, while she was really in love with a young writer of the 
town, one Washington Irving, whose articles in the newspapers of the day 
were then attracting much attention. But the story lacks confirmation. 
Irving and the lovely Theodosia were acquaintances, it is true, and fre- 
quently met in society, but there is no proof of any intimacy between them. 

Immediately after her marriage, the bride accompanied her husband 
to South Carolina, and the happy pair took up their residence at the 
Oaks, the patrimonial estate of Mr. Alston, and one of the most charm- 
ing of South Carolina homes. Soon after his marriage, the young hus- 
band, spurred by Colonel Burr's vigorous mind, entered public life, and 
in a few years, by the aid of his talents and position, was elected Chief 
Magistrate of the State. To add to the young wife's happiness, a beauti- 
ful boy was born in the first year of her marriage, which vvas christened 
Aaron Burr Alston, around whom the liveliest hopes of the parents, and 
of the far-off grandfather as well, clustered. This event we may suppose 
completed the sum of her happiness; indeed her life, for the first five 
years of her marriage, was all brightness and sunshine. An honored 



THEODOSIA BURR ALS70N. 6/ 

wife and proud mother, beautiful, accomplished, and fascinating, a Vice- 
President's daughter, and a Governor's wife, leading the society of two 
States, petted and adored by all — who could at this time have foreseen 
her coming misfortunes and tragic fate. 

In the summer of 1806, she spent some weeks with her father at Blen- 
nerhasset's Island and on the Cumberland. In the fall they parted; he 
to plant his colony on the Washita, and if events favored to seat himself 
on the throne of the Montezumas; she to return to South Carolina, and 
wait. The winter passed. In May she was horrified to learn that her 
father was in jail at Richmond, and about to be tried for his life on a 
charge of treason, but letters from her father, which swiftly followed the 
news, allayed, in some measure, her apprehensions. They assured her 
of his innocence, that his arrest was the work of his political enemies, and 
that they would be foiled, and himself completely exonerated from all 
charges. But the devoted daughter felt that she must be with her father 
in this hour of adversity, and at once set out for Richmond; she arrived 
a few days before the trial began, and remained until it was concluded 
by the acquittal of her father, spending most of the time in the prison 
with him, and proudly sharing the odium that was gathering about his 
name. 

What she thought, and how she felt in regard to her father's alleged 
crime, and the labors of his enemies, is very frankly stated in the follow- 
ing letter written to a friend at the conclusion of the trial: 

" I have this moment received a message from court, announcing to 
me that the jury has brought in a verdict of acquittal, and I hasten to in- 
form you of it, my dear, to allay the anxiety which, with even more than 
your usual sweetness, you have expressed in your letter of the 2 2d of 
July. It afflicts me, indeed, to think that you should have suffered so 
much from sympathy with the imagined state of my feelings; for the 
knowledge of my father's innocence, my ineffable contempt for his 
enemies, and the elevation of his mind have kept me above any sensations 
bordering on depression. Indeed, my father, so far from accepting of 
sympathy, has continually animated all around him; it was common to 
see his desponding friends, filled with alarm at some new occurrence, 



6S THEODOSIA BURR ALSTON, 

terrified with some new appearance of danger, fly to him in search of en- 
couragement and support, and laughed out of their fears by the subject 
of them. This I have witnessed every day, and it almost persuaded me 
that he possessed the secret of repelling danger as well as apprehension. 
Since my residence here, of which some days and a night were passed in 
the penetentiary, our little family circle has been a scene of uninterrupted 
gayety. Thus you see, my lovely sister, this visit has been a real party 
of pleasure. From many of the first inhabitants, I have received the 
most unremitting and delicate attentions, sympathy, indeed, of any I ever 
experienced." 

Nor did her devotion falter during subsequent years, when her father 
was an exile, and in his own country everywhere spoken against. She 
gladly shared his reproach, as she had his honor, and for those who, 
without a particle of evidence, and in the face of his triumphant vindica- 
tion by the courts, could condemn and ostracize the innocent, she ex- 
pressed only the most unmitigated contempt. Meantime she wrote letters 
of womanly tenderness and cheer to the exile, and eagerly watched the 
political horizon for signs of an abatement of the popular resentment. 
She also addressed letters to eminent public men, pleading her fathers' 
cause, and asking their opinion as to his safety should he venture to re- 
turn to his native land. Some idea of the style and force of these epistles 
may be gathered from the following, addressed to Mrs. James Madison, 
wife of the President, on this subject, and with whom she had been quite 
intimate in brighter days. 

" Rocky River Springs, June 24th, 1S09. 
" Madam: — You may perhaps be surprised at receiving a letter from 
one with whom you have had so little intercourse for the last few years. 
But your surprise will cease when you recollect that my father, once your 
friend, is now in exile; and that the President only can restore him to me 
and to his country. Ever since the choice of the people was first declared 
in favor of Mr. Madison, my heart, amid the universal joy, has beat with 
the hope that I too should soon have reason to rejoice. Convinced that 
Mr. Madison would neither feel, nor judge, from the feelings or judgment 



THEODOSIA BURR ALSTON. 69 

of Others, I had no doubt of his hastening to relieve a man, whose char- 
acter he had been enabled to appreciate during a confidential intercourse 
of long continuance, and whom he must know incapable of the designs 
attributed to him. My anxiety on this subject has, however, become too 
painful to be alleviated by anticipations which no events have yet tended 
to justify, and in this state oi intolerable suspense, I have determined to 
address myself to you, and request that you will, in my name, apply to 
the President for a removal of the prosecution now existing against Aaron 
Burr. I still expect it from him, as a man of feeling and candor, as one 
acting for the world and for posterity. 

" Statesmen, I am aware, deem it necessary that sentiments of liber- 
ality, and even justice, should yield to considerations of policy, but what 
policy can require the, absence of my father at present ? Even had he 
contemplated the project for which he stands arraigned, evidently to pur- 
sue it any further would now be impossible. There is not left one pretext 
of alarm, even to calumny. For bereft of fortune, of popular favor, and 
almost of friends, what could he accomplish; and whatever may be the 
apprehensions, or clamors of the ignorant and the interested, surely the 
timid, illiberal system which would sacrifice a man to a remote and un- 
reasonable possibility that he might infringe some law founded on an un- 
just, unwarrantable suspicion that he would desire it, cannot be approved 
by Mr. Madison, and must be unnecessary to a President so loved, so 
honored. Why, then, is my father banished from a country for which he 
has encountered wounds, and dangers, and fatigue, for years ? Why is he 
driven from his friends, from an only child, to pass an unlimited time 
in exile, and that, too, at an age when others are reaping the harvest of 
past toils, or ought at least to be providing seriously for the comfort of 
ensuing years ? I do not seek to soften you by this recapitulation. I 
wish only to remind you of all the injuries which are inflicted on one of 
the first characters the United States ever produced. Perhaps it may be 
well to assure you there is no truth in a report lately circulated that my 
father intends returning immediately. 

" He never will return to conceal himself in a country on which he 
has conferred distinction. To whatever fate Mr. Madison may doom this 



^O THEODOSIA BURR ALSTON; 

application, I trust it will be treated with delicacy. Of this I am the 
more desirous, as Mr. Alston is ignorant of the step I have taken in writ- 
ing to you, which, perhaps nothing could excuse but the warmth of filial 
affection. If it be an error, attribute it to the indiscreet zeal of a daugh- 
ter whose soul sinks at the gloomy prospect of a long and indefinite 
separation from a father almost adored, and who can leave nothing unat- 
tempted, which offers the slightest hope of procuring him redress. What 
indeed would I not risk once more to see him, to hang upon him, to 
place my child upon his knee, and again spend my days in the happy oc- 
cupation of endeavoring to anticipate his wishes. Let me entreat, my 
dear madam, that you will have the consideration and goodness to answer 
me as speedily as possible; my heart is sore with doubt and patient wait- 
ing for something definite. No apologies are made for giving you this 
trouble, which I am sure you will not deem it irksome to take for a 
daughter, an affectionate daughter thus situated. Inclose your letter for 
me to A. J. Frederic Prevost, Esq., near New Rochelle, New York. 
** That every happiness may attend you is the sincere wish of 

Theo. Burr Alston. 

" To Mrs. Ja7nes Madison, Washington, D. C." 

It was from assurances received in answer to this letter, that Colonel 
Burr, in t8io, began to think once more of his native land. In the spring 
of 1812 her father arrived in Boston, but hardly had the news of his ar- 
rival reached her, when she was called upon to suffer a bereavement, be- 
side which those that had preceded it seemed trifles light as air. Her 
boy, her only child, a handsome promising lad of eleven years, the " little 
Gamp" so frequently mentioned in Burr's letters, sickened and died. 
This blow shattered in an instant the hopes of years, and plunged both 
parents and grandfather in the deepest depths of affliction. 

** But a few miserable days past," wrote the poor bereaved mother to 
her father, announcing her loss, " and your late letters would have glad- 
dened my soul, and even now I rejoice at their contents, as much as it is 
possible for me to rejoice at anything; but there is no more joy for me. 
The world is a blank. I have lost my boy. My child is gone forever. 



THEODOSIA BURR ALSTON, 71 

He expired on the 30th of June. My head is not sufficiently collected 
to say anything further. May Heaven by other things make you some 
amends for the noble grandson you have lost. He was eleven years old." 

The mother never recovered from the effects of this shock. For years 
her health had been delicate, owing in some measure, no doubt, to the 
unfavorable influence of the climate; as early as 1805 she had been 
forced to admit the probability of an early death, and at that time pre- 
pared a letter to be given to her husband after her death, and which was 
found among her effects after her decease in 1813. This letter, so nat- 
ural, and so characteristic, conveys a better idea of the life and character 
of this remarkable woman, than could pages of studied description and 
eulogy. It was intended for one eye alone, but as it has been before 
published, and as it exhibits its author in a most favorable light, there can 
be no impropriety in reproducing it here. 

The following is the letter. 

•' Aug. 6, 1805. 

"Whether it is the effect of extreme debility and disordered nerves, 
or whether it is really presentiment, the existence of which I have often 
been told of and always doubted, I cannot tell; but something whispers 
me that my end approaches. In vain I reason with myself; in vain I oc- 
cupy my mind and seek to fix my attention on other subjects; there is 
about me that dreadful heaviness and sinking of the heart, that awful 
foreboding of which it is impossible to divest myself. 

" Perhaps I am now standing on the brink of eternity, and ere I plunge 
in the fearful abyss, I have some few requests to make. I wish your sis- 
ters (one of them, it is immaterial which) would select from my clothes 
certain things which, they will easily perceive, belonged to my mother. 
These, with whatever lace they find in a large trunk in a garret-room of 
the Oaks House, added to a little satin-wood box, (the largest, and hav- 
ing a lock and key,) and a black satin embroidered box with a pin- 
cushion; all these things I wish they would put together in one trunk, 
and send them to Frederic Prevost, with the enclosed letter." 

Then follow several bequests, after which the letter continues: 



72 THEODOSIA BURR ALSTON. 

** To you, my beloved, I leave my child, the child of my bosom, who 
was once a part of myself, and from whom I shall shortly be separated by 
the cold grave. You love him now, henceforth love him for me also. 
And oh, my husband, attend to this last prayer of a doting mother! 
Never, never, listen to what any other person tells you of him. Be your- 
self his judge on all occasions. He has faults; see them and correct 
them yourself. Desist not an instant from your endeavors to secure his 
confidence. It is a work which requires as much uniformity of conduct 
as warmth of affection toward him. 

** I know, my beloved, that you can perceive what is right on this sub- 
ject, as on every other. But recollect, these are the last words I can ever 
utter. It will tranquillize my last moments to have disburdened myself 
of them. I fear you will scarcely be able to read this scrawl, but I feel 
hurried and agitated. Death is not welcome to me; I confess it is ever 
dreaded. You have made me too fond of life. Adieu then, thou kind, 
thou tender husband. Adieu, friend of my heart. May Heaven prosper 
you, and may we meet hereafter. Adieu, perhaps we may never see each 
other again in this world. You are away; I wished to hold you fast, and 
prevent you from going this morning. 

** But He who is wisdom itself ordains events; we must submit to 
them. Least of all should I murmur. I on whom so many blessings have 
been showered, whose days have been numbered by^ bounties, who have 
had such a husband, such a child, and such a father. Oh, pardon me, 
my God, if I regret leaving these! I resign myself. Adieu once more 
and for the last time, my beloved. Speak of me often to our son. Let 
him love the memory of his mother, and let him know how he was loved 
by her. 

** Your wife, your fond wife, 

"Theo." 

This letter was written in the summer of 1805. In this summer of 
181 2, her malady had greatly increased. She sank into a listless, apa- 
thetic state, pitiful to see and from which it was difficult to rouse her. Her 
boy was dead, henceforth life was a blank, and existence a burden. In 
the fall, her father, alarmed, insisted that she should come North; he 



THEODOSIA BURR ALSTON. 73 

even sent an old friend to her home to accompany her on the journey. 
It was manifestly impossible for her in her enfeebled state to make the 
journey by land, and the party, comprising Theodosia, her maid, her phy- 
sician, and Mr. Green, proceeded to Charleston, and embarked on a small 
schooner called the Patriot. The vessel sailed on the 30th of December, 
1812, and was never again heard of. It was the commonly received 
opinion that she foundered off Hatteras, in a heavy storm that visited the 
coast a few days after she left port; but forty years after a paragraph 
appeared in a Texan newspaper and went the rounds of the press, giving 
a different version of her fate. 

This paragraph purported to be the confession of a sailor who had 
recently died in Texas, and who declared on his death-bed that he was 
one of the crew of the Patriot in December, 1812, and that during the 
voyage the sailors mutinied and murdered all the officers and passengers, 
Mrs. Alston being the last to walk the plank. 

To this statement the Pennsylvania Efiquirer added corroborative evi- 
dence as follows: 

" An item of news just now going the rounds relates that a sailor, who 
died in Texas, confessed on his death-bed that he was one of the crew of 
mutineers who, some forty years ago, took possession of a brig on its pas- 
sage from Charleston to New York, and caused all the officers and pas- 
sengers to walk the plank. For forty years the wretched man has carried 
about the dreadful secret, and died at last in an agony of despair. 

"What gives this story additional interest is the fact that the vessel 
referred to is the one in which Mrs. Theodosia Alston, the beloved 
daughter of Aaron Burr, took passage for New York, for the purpose of 
meeting her parent in the darkest days of his existence, and which, never 
having been heard of, was supposed to have been foundered at sea. The 
dying sailor professed to remember her well, said she was the last who 
perished, and that he never forgot her look of despair as she took the last 
step from the fatal plank. On reading this account, I regarded it as a 
fiction ; but on conversing with an officer of the navy he assures me of 
its probable truth, and states that on one of his passages home some 
years ago, his vessel brought two pirates in irons, who were subsequently 



74 THEODOSIA BURR ALSTON, 

executed at Norfolk for recent offences, and who, before their execution, 
confessed that they had been members of the same crew and participated 
in the murder of Mrs. Alston and her companions. Whatever opinion 
may be entertained of the father, the memory of the daughter must be 
revered as one of the loveliest and most excellent of American women, 
and the revelation of her untimely fate can only serve to invest that mem- 
ory with a more tender and melancholy interest." 

And this is all that can be certainly known in regard to her death. 
The reader will draw his own conclusions; but in either case what a 
tragic fate was hers! To her father this was the " event that separated 
him from the human race." To her husband, thus doubly bereaved, it 
proved a blow from the effects of which he never fully recovered. He 
survived his wife and child but a few years, dying at Charleston, Septem- 
ber loth, 1816, at the early age of thirty-eight years. 

A recent writer in the New York Evening Post^ after repeating the 
above extract, continues: 

"Seventeen years later, in 1869, Dr. W. G. Pool, a physician of 
Elizabeth City, N. C, was summering with his family at Nag's Head, a 
summer resort on the outer barrier of sand which protects the North 
Carolina coast, about fifty miles north of Cape Hatteras. While here he 
made an interesting discovery, an account of which we copy from the 
correspondence of the Philadelphia Times of February 20, 1880: 

" During that season he was called upon professionally to visit a lady 
named Mrs. Mann, who lived two miles north of Nag's Head and directly 
opposite Kitty Hawk, where the United States man-of-war Huron met 
her fate. The old lady was sixty-five years of age, but never had occa- 
sion to seek the services of a physician before, and whatever her com- 
plaint was now, the Doctor cured her. She had great fear of physicians 
in general, and when she became well, her gratitude to Dr. Pool was so 
intense ' for not killing her,' as she expressed herself, that she told him he 
could have anything in her possession except money, and of that she had 
none. The Doctor stated to her that he would make no charge, but be- 
coming interested in the strange being before him he, in company with his 



THEODOSIA BURR ALSTON, 75 

little daughter, who is now a young lady, paid the old woman almost daily 
visits. The house in which Mrs. Mann resided was quaint, though hum- 
ble, and the surroundings were of the same nature. But what puzzled 
the Doctor most was where a woman of Mrs. Mann's position in society 
could have obtained such a fine oil painting, it being evidently the por- 
trait of a handsome, intelligent lady, of high standing in the social world. 
He was on the eve of questioning the old woman several times, but al- 
ways failed, afraid to offend by touching on some delicate subject; but 
his daughter came to his relief by saying: ' Father, I have fallen in love 
with that beautiful picture. Please buy it for me.' This was the first 
occasion Mrs. Mann had for proving her gratitude to the Doctor ' for 
not killing her, ' and overhearing the child she said : * You can have it, 
honey; I will make you a present of it.' The little girl was overjoyed at 
becoming the possessor of what at that time she desired most of all on 
earth ; but her father was not yet satisfied, and determined to learn the 
secret of that picture if possible. So after many visits of a kindly nature 
the old lady agreed to tell her story. 

** ' Some years before my marriage with my first husband, Mr. Til- 
lett,' she said, ' and while we were courting, a pilot-boat came ashore 
near Kitty Hawk. She had all sail set and the rudder was fastened. Mr. 
Tillett, in company with the wreckers, boarded her, and in the cabin they 
found the breakfast-table set, but not disturbed. Why we thought it was 
that meal was because the beds were not made up. Anyhow, the trunks 
were broken open, and among the things scattered about on the cabin 
floor were several silk dresses, a black lace shawl, a vase of wax flowers, 
with a glass globe covering, a shell resembling the shape of the nautilus, 
beautifully carved, and the lovely picture. There was no blood seen on 
the vessel or any sign of violence, and my opinion was that the passengers 
and crew on that pilot boat walked the plank ; the rudder was tied up and 
the vessel turned adrift. My future husband took for his share of the 
spoils two dresses, the shell, vase, and picture, all of which he presented 
to me, and I have kept them ever since. This was years ago. I don't 
remember the year, but it was very near the time we were fighting the 
English. This is all I know about the picture, and as your father did 



>j6 THE DO SI A BURR ALSTON 

not kill mt, you are welcome to it, honey. Wait a bit and I *11 bring the 
other things for you to look at.' 

**The articles mentioned were then put before Dr. Pool and his 
daughter for inspection and the young lady says there is no doubt but 
that everything in the possession of Mrs. Mann once belonged to some 
lady of culture, taste, and refinement. The old lady told her story in a 
hesitating manner and the chances are that much remained untold. 

" The portrait bore so striking a resemblance to Theodosia Alston as 
to be remarked by all who saw it and who were familiar with the engraved 
portraits of that lady. The circumstance of the vessel's coming ashore at 
about the time the Patriot left Georgetown, coupled with the dying 
sailor's declaration, led the Doctor and his family to believe that Mrs. 
Mann's * pilot-boat ' was the Patriot^ and that the portrait so strangely 
found was one of herself that Mrs. Alston was taking to her father. Act- 
ing on this belief, and to test its accuracy, they had photographs of the 
portrait made,, and sent them to artists and friends of the family for their 
opinion. These in most cases pronounced the portrait a likeness of Mrs. 
Alston. Mr. George B. Edwards of New York, a connection of the lady 
on her mother's side, wrote: * My father agrees with me in the belief that 
it is Aaron Burr's daughter. She certainly has his eyes and the Edwards 
nose.' The photograph was also shown to Col. John H. Wheeler, the 
historian of North Carolina, and to his wife, a daughter of Sully, the 
portrait-painter, herself a sculptor of merit, who both pronounced it a 
striking likeness of Theodosia." 

The writer, being in the vicinity of Dr. Pool's home in 1889, paid 
him a visit and was shown the portrait. It is an oil painting on wood, 
with gilt frame about twenty inches in length, and of the school of art in 
vogue in 1800-10. Familiar with three portraits of Theodosia by differ- 
ent artists, he at once recognized a marked resemblance, although he 
would hesitate confidently to pronounce it a portrait of that lady; yet the 
difference was no more than might have resulted from a difference in age. 
In the hope of gaining corroborative evidence as to the identity of the 
portrait, he crossed over Albemarle Sound to Nag's Head. Mrs. Mann, 



THEODOSIA BURR ALSTON 77 

he learned, had been dead several years. Two sons were found living 
among the dunes of that strange coast five miles north of the Head. Both 
disclaimed ever having seen or heard of portrait, dresses, vase, or shell, 
but referred him to an elder sister, Mrs. Westcott, a widow living on 
Roanoke Island, who might possibly have been m.ore in their mother's 
confidence than they. Before leaving on this errand, however, he made 
diligent inquiry among the wreckers for any tradition or memory of the 
pilot-boat, without awakening a single recollection. This, however, does 
not militate against Dr. Pool's story, for the * banker ' of to-day, although 
he does not, like his forefathers, lure ships ashore and strip the wreck, is 
still very reticent as to what was done on these sands generations ago. 
Unsuccessful on the banks, he crossed the Sound to Roanoke and visited 
Mrs. Westcott at her pleasant cottage on the western shore of the island. 
She is a woman of excellent reputation, and favorably impressed the visi- 
tor by her intelligence and sincerity. 

She recollected the portrait, and remembered hearing her mother 
say it was found in a bureau or chest of drawers that floated ashore when 
she was a baby; had never seen or heard of the silk dresses, shell, or vase. 
No one who is acquainted with Dr. Pool or his daughter can doubt the 
truth of their story. Mrs. Mann must have told them what she is said to 
have told them. But what she did with the articles which they saw in 
her cottage in 1869, and what circumstances attended their getting that 
she should have hidden them from her children and neighbors through 
a long life, is one of the many mysteries of these sands that will never be 

solved. - ^ 

L. of 0. 



RD- 364. 



r^ 



^0 
\9. 







^, %.^^ »^'- \./ .'^\ "-..^^ »*^fe'-- ^^^^ 
















^■i^ ^^ 









-ov^ 



B3 BROTHEBi'''!V^-»>'"?Y §N^IN6 ^V 



jrr. Aiif . ;.. 



it'i^inA ^' "^ j.^y. 









